A Russian man who drifted on the seas aboard his knockabout for over 9,260km and ended up off the coast of Tamsui several days ago, returned safely to Russia Thursday, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources reported yesterday.
Alexander Rudnev, a real estate manager from Siberia, never imagined that his sailing journey, originally scheduled for 16 days, would end up being a one-month ordeal of drifting on the high seas. His course took him from Vladivostok to South Korea, Japan and down to Taiwan.
Rudnev was found drifting aboard his unpowered single-mast sailing boat Falco off Tamsui on the night of Oct. 16. When he was found, Rudnev was in bad shape and had no idea of his location. Arrangements were made for him to stay at the CGA's Tamsui operations center.
The CGA Tamsui officials notified the Moscow-Taipei Economic and Cultural Coordination Commission about Rudnev's situation. They also hired a Taiwanese Russian-language student from Tamkang University in Tamsui to act as an interpreter, since Rudnev speaks no English or Chinese.
After five days of rest, Rudnev departed Taipei for home Thursday, this time aboard a Northwest Airlines flight. He expressed his sincere gratitude to Taiwan and said that he will take his wife and children to Taiwan on a future visit, "by airplane of course," to say thank you again and tour the country.
According to Rudnev, he departed from his home in New Siberia City Sept. 12. After a six day train journey on the "Red Train," he reached the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, from where he sailed off alone aboard the Falco for South Korea.
After sailing for about 1,852km, Rudnev reached Pusan, South Korea, Sept. 26 as planned and went ashore for a four-day backpacking trip.
He set off from Pusan for home on Sept. 30 but was soon met with a storm. Having no other option, Rudnev lowered his mast and drifted. Four days later, he found himself beached ashore at a fishing village in northwest Japan. With the assistance of the Russian embassy in Japan, he obtained his visa and took a sightseeing trip in Japan for seven days.
On Oct. 10, he departed Japan for home and was immediately met with strong northeast trade winds. Like a small leaf, his boat drifted for about one week in high waves before it was pushed southward.
Rudnev's situation turned for the worse when Typhoon Tokage, the deadliest typhoon to hit Japan in two decades, swept the region with gusty winds, downpours and a record-large radius of 500km.
During the typhoon's onslaught, Rudnev on at least two occasions felt certain he would not survive. But after drifting further southward he was met by Taiwanese patrol officers who brought him to safety in Tamsui.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
RSS