About 20,000 people yesterday took part in the annual Sun Moon Lake International Swimming Carnival in Nantou County, with extra disease prevention measures in place amid COVID-19 concerns, organizers said.
Nantou County Commissioner Lin Ming-chen (林明溱) said that businesses in the popular tourist area were relieved to learn that the annual event would go ahead after the central government approved it in light of the additional measures.
This year, the organizers checked each participant’s temperature, and required all participants to wear a mask up until entering the water and immediately after finishing the 3km swim.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Ritchie B. Tongo
The swimmers were also divided into four groups with different time slots, and the intervals between the starting times were longer than in the past, the organizers said.
According to the organizers, 21,828 people, including 195 foreign nationals, signed up as part of 1,998 teams for the event, which has been held since 1983.
Participants included former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and a team led by Australian Representative to Taiwan Gary Cowan, who took his daughter and colleagues to the event following a challenge from Canadian Representative to Taiwan Jordan Reeves, Cowan wrote on Twitter.
Photo courtesy of the Australian Office in Taipei
When he first arrived in Taiwan, he was told that Taiwanese perform three outdoor activities in their lifetime: climb Yushan (玉山), swim across Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) and bike around Taiwan proper, Cowan said.
Cowan, who has been in Taiwan for two years and nine months, said he has been promoting “sports diplomacy,” and has explored Taiwan’s natural beauty through hiking and cycling.
He has also participated in the Taipei 101 climb, and hiked up Yushan and Syueshan (雪山), he said.
He also joined members of the Australia New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Taipei on a cycling trip from New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) to Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) in Pingtung County, in addition to other cycling trips including one from Hualien County to Tainan.
In June, he rode the circuit traversed by riders in the annual King of the Mountain event, and next month he plans to cycle from Taipei to Tainan, he said.
Yesterday’s swim was a “once in a lifetime experience,” Cowan wrote on Twitter.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said it plans to revise the export control list for strategic high-tech products by adding 18 items under three categories — advanced 3D printing equipment, advanced semiconductor equipment and quantum computers — which would require local manufacturers to obtain licenses for their export. The ministry’s announcement yesterday came as the International Trade Administration issued a 60-day preview period for planned revisions to the Export Control List for Dual Use Items and Technology (軍商兩用貨品及技術出口管制清單) and the Common Military List (一般軍用貨品清單), which fall under regulations governing export destinations for strategic high-tech commodities and specific strategic high-tech commodities. The
RSS