Huang Jin-boa (
"I'll go park my car out in the countryside, and I can rent the parking space for NT$5000 a month. That would make NT$60,000 in a year, or more if I sell it. We can use that money for our trip," he said.
The trip he's talking about will take him and his family one big loop around the world, and except for three ocean-traversing legs by air and a possible hovercraft ride over the English Channel, they plan to ride the whole way on bicycles. They will set off next month, and hope to average 500km a week so they can finish within 13 months, just in time for 18-year-old Jian-jia (黃建家) to begin college and 15-year-old Tsung-fu (黃琮富) to start high school. Huang estimates the total cycling distance to be 24,718km.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
For the 43-year-old private contractor, his 38-year-old wife Yang Li-jun (楊麗君) and their two boys, this odyssey will begin with a July 10 flight to Hong Kong. From there, they will cycle north over the mountains of southern China, through the croplands of eastern central China and the cities of Changsha and Nanyang. At Wuhan they will cross the Yangtze River, then bear northwest to Hsian where they will begin to follow the Silk Road.
Huang is already familiar with much of the route. Four years ago he spent 30 days cycling along the Silk Road from Hsian to Tunhuang by himself. But this time with the family, he'll continue farther. They'll follow the ancient caravan route through the arid climes of the Gobi Desert and western China, to Urumqi and Kashgar. From there at China's western extreme, they'll climb and pass the mountains of the Hindu Kush, the great northern protector of India. Then the family of four will pedal down into the Kashmiri section of Pakistan, through Islamabad and Quetta and into Iran.
Wait a minute. Kashmir, the 2,500km length of Pakistan, and into Iran?
Wondering whether any number of militant groups in the region would shoot them just to see if they were Americans, journalists or spies, I politely asked the Huangs if they had a Plan B.
Huang and his wife looked at each other as if to say: "Plan B? This is Plan B!"
"Originally we wanted to take a more northerly route," Huang explained, smiling wholesomely. His finger traced a jagged and highlighted road on the map leading north from Kashgar and into Kyrgzystan, where the florescent yellow road ribbon ran off the edge of the photocopied atlas page, only to pick up on another that Huang lined up next to it. This, the now discarded Plan A route, would have taken them through the Pamirs, to Kyryzstan and then some other "stans" on another photocopy somewhere else in the pile of numerous photocopies all over the floor. "But we would have to go through here in late autumn and winter, and the cold weather would make it very, very difficult," he concluded.
As things stand now, they'll still have to hope that the snow doesn't block the 4,900m-high Khunjerab Pass before Oct. 22, the date they're scheduled to reach the China-Pakistan border. And that says nothing of the political dangers.
First there's Kashmir, which is full of uncontrolled militias and the site of escalating violence, if not a potential war, between India and Pakistan. The Huangs will skirt around this region. Further along in Pakistan, there is the danger of violence from radical Islamic groups, who in recent months are responsible for at least one kidnapping and several murders of Westerners. The Huangs, however, are ethnic Chinese, but will that eliminate all danger? They think it will help, but to be honest, they're not sure.
"We haven't been able to get any information on that kind of thing in Taiwan," Mrs Huang said.
On the basis of ongoing unrest within Pakistan, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recommended that the Huang's abandon their plan of cycling through the nation. But after consulting more informal sources of information, including Pakistanis at Taipei's two mosques, Huang still sees potential for completing the leg, and his dream of completing an unbroken overland cycling journey around the world. To aid him and his family on their way, the imam at one of Taipei's mosques has even provided a letter in Arabic requesting their safe passage.
But as for the final word: "We haven't decided yet," Huang said, his wife nodding in agreement. "We're going to check at the Pakistani embassy in Hong Kong when we get there next month and see what they have to say."
A great deal of hope for the route comes from the knowledge that it has been done before. Last year, a 48-year-old Taiwanese woman, Liu Bi-lian (劉碧連), together with a male English companion pioneered most of the track the Huang's hope to travel through Asia and the Middle East. The pair took a similar course through China and the same roads through Pakistan and Iran. When forced to wait for a visa at the Iranian border, they made a two-week excursion up into southwestern Afghanistan.
"Back then, they didn't even need bodyguards," Mrs Huang commented.
Of course this was all before Sept. 11. The bombing of New York's World Trade Center occurred on Liu's third day in Iran, at which time Iranian authorities requested that all foreigners leave the country. She and her companion then flew on to Turkey, where they continued cycling up into Europe until a frostbitten nose in Germany forced her to give up the trek and return to Taiwan.
For the mother, part of the journey's equipment list includes a cycling burqha, an Islamic garment for women that covers everything from the head to the ankles. The family will also bring candy as a peace offering for Pakistani children, whom Liu has told them will pelt travelers with stones.
Generally, Huang believes that honesty and kindness will inspire reciprocal feelings in those they encounter on the road. "If we treat others sincerely, I think people will treat us sincerely too," he said.
But if conditions are too dangerous, Huang conceded, "If there's fighting, for the safety of the family we'll choose another route."
There's even a good chance the dilemma will become completely moot if the Huangs cannot work out their visas for Pakistan, which is still a distinct possibility. But for the present, they still hope to complete the unbroken overland trek, which will be a culmination of sorts for Huang, who's been building up to something since his teenage years.
Back then, he'd pedal his one-gear bike from Taipei to Chinshan on the northeast coast, sometimes using his feet for brakes coming down the slopes of Yangmingshan. Though he was never much of a competition cyclist, 10 years ago he introduced cycling as a family activity so he could "grow up together with [his] children."
Over time, excursions into city parks turned into tours around Sun Moon Lake and Kenting National Park. Five years ago when one son was 13 and the other 10, the family rode the perimeter of Taiwan in seven days. Three years ago, Huang took mom and the kids for five weeks of cycling through Belgium, Holland Germany, Luxembourg and France.
"In 38 days in Europe, we only spent one night in a hotel," Mrs Huang recalled.
For the upcoming journey, the family plans to enter Europe from the east at the border of Turkey and Iran. After traversing that ancient seat of the Byzantine empire, they hope to enter Bulgaria and Romania (Liu was unable to enter these countries, and the Huangs are still not sure if they can get visas), then follow the Danube up to Budapest, Vienna and Munich. They will enter France near Strasbourg, then make for the Normandy coast, where they will cross the English Channel at Calais because they've "never been to England before."
They estimate the total cost of the voyage at NT$2.5 million, though several equipment sponsorships have brought the cost down. The bicycles, each a specially designed trekking bike with an extra support bar welded into the aluminum alloy frame, are now being custom made by Merida, Taiwan's second-largest bicycle manufacturer. Much of the camping equipment and clothing they need will be provided by the wilderness outfitting chain Jack Wolfskin.
On the road, each rider will carry an average of 70kg, though mom will carry less. A few of the extras onboard include a GPS device, notebook computer, digital camera and an electronic dictionary -- only the boys speak a bit of English.
From London, the Huangs will fly to New York City at the beginning of May 2003, provided they're still on schedule. From the Big Apple, they'll head upstate and then east along two of the Great Lakes, Ontario and Erie, before pedaling westward through Cleveland and Chicago, where they'll catch site of a third Great Lake, Michigan. Then it's on into Minnesota and across the northern edge of the continental US. They'll cross over the Rocky Mountains in Montana, and wind up the epic journey in Seattle, Washington, from where they'll fly back to Taipei.
Indeed, it'll be an astounding circumnavigation if they can complete it. Huang's own descriptions of the adventure, however, tend to be very modest. He claims only to be "the first Taiwanese family to cycle around the world together," mentioning that several other Taiwanese have cycled "around the world" before. When pressed, however, he admits that none of the others completed a straight-line journey that was only broken by oceans, as he plans for his family.
And for the biggest question of all -- why he'd want to do this in the first place -- Huang's answer seems almost incidental. He has no grandiose thoughts, no far flung ideas of two-wheeler diplomacy, and no misconceptions about the immortality of the deeds of him and his clan.
"We're going for firsthand life experience," he said. "We're not out for risk or trying to set any kind of record. We just really want to ride around the whole world on bicycles."
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