Hsu Wen-erh (許汶而) on Friday became the first Taiwanese to swim solo across the English Channel, saying she was very happy to bring Taiwan to the world.
Hsu completed the challenge in 12 hours, 17 minutes and eight seconds, after swimming across the Strait of Gibraltar in October last year.
She said she had planned to swim the English Channel in August next year, but seized the opportunity when a vacancy became available on the waiting list.
Photo courtesy Hsu Wen-erh via CNA
She went to the UK in May to train for a test that involves swimming for six hours at 16°C, which people who want to swim across the channel must pass, Hsu said.
“I shivered with cold and my fingers even changed color during the first week, but I got used to it and finally passed the test,” she said.
Hsu said she left the UK at 8:30am, swimming without a wetsuit, with the aim of reaching France before dark.
“The journey’s ninth and 10th hours were the most tiring and torturing, as the sunlight shone right in my eyes. Even wearing mirrored goggles is not enough. I swam with my eyes closed almost all the way through the last two hours,” Hsu said.
“Finally, I could see ... France, but the strong currents kept dragging me away. It was painful that I could see the shore, but could not swim ashore,” she said, adding that a seal raised its head above the water and looked at her as she made it to land.
Hsu said she also had to swim through lots of jellyfish that were nearly as big as basketballs.
“I had to turn my head to watch out and dodge the jellyfish. The waters have the most jellyfish that I have ever seen,” she said.
She reached France before dark, covering a total distance of 43.87km, official data showed.
Hsu said that she was “so excited and could not fall asleep” even though she was exhausted, as it was the first time in her life that she had paddled almost nonstop for 12 hours.
She said she was happy to achieve the milestone and raise “Taiwan’s visibility in the world through the sport,” Hsu said.
She said she would not be taking a break and would remain in the UK to train before heading to the US by the end of next month to swim across another strait.
“Can anyone be as crazy as I am?” she asked.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development