Taiwanese hiker admires Nepal’s Tilicho Lake and even spends the night

Taiwanese hiker admires Nepal’s Tilicho Lake and even spends the night

2022-11-02

Pingtung hiking enthusiast Domi Wang recently made headlines for summiting the mountain by Nepal’s Tilicho Lake, the highest lake in the world. The 34-year-old photographer also managed to camp beside the frozen lake. Few hikers attempt the challenging journey. Let’s hear more from Wang now.

Mug of coffee in hand, Domi Wang looks out over Nepal’s Tilicho Lake, the highest in the world.

Pingtung native Wang is serious about hiking. On her recent trip to Nepal, she achieved her dream of camping overnight on the mountain beside Tilicho Lake.

Domi Wang
Hiking enthusiast
What was hard was trying to camp by the lake, because there’s absolutely nowhere to spend the night. Generally people choose to just walk up it and leave the same day.

Hiking at such high altitudes is extremely taxing. The path takes hikers across rocky slopes at temperatures of minus 5 degrees Celsius. That’s enough to freeze a camera fast, a serious test of will.

Domi Wang
Hiking enthusiast
I really wanted to stay overnight by the lake, so I carried up a lot of camping things to the high altitude. It weighed about 15 kilograms or so. Carrying that for a week is pretty uncomfortable – kind of tiring. You have to train for it.

A hike like this is not as financially expensive as climbing one of the highest mountains in the world. But saving up for the trip was still a big project.

Domi Wang
Hiking enthusiast
It counts as a normal walk, what we call a normal hike. It’s not like the kind of walks experts do, where you might need to acquire a lot of sponsorship and organize a team, and expenses are several million NT dollars. My trip to Tilicho cost about NT$170,000. Of course, that’s not exactly cheap. I did all kinds of casual work beforehand to save up money to go travelling.

On her hike, Wang also ran into Nepalese off-road motorcyclists who were attempting to summit the mountain on their bikes. They made a record for the highest altitude motorcycle ride in Nepal, and Wang caught their celebration on camera. This is surely a trip she’ll never forget.

打工賺17萬旅費王朵米完成世界最高湖泊露營

2022-11-02

屏東的恆春半島有一名34歲的登山愛好者王朵米，她靠著自己打工賺旅費，用十七萬，花一個星期的時間，完成5000公尺世界海拔最高的湖泊探索。

手裏端著熱熱的咖啡，眼前是世界海拔最高的提里喬湖，美得宛如仙境。

來自屏東的登山愛好者王朵米，日前到尼泊爾登山，完成在提里喬湖露營過夜的夢想。

[[登山愛好者王朵米]]
“這次比較困難的點是我想要在湖邊露營，因為湖邊是完全沒有過夜的地方，一般人都是選擇單攻就是所謂的當日來回”

高海拔健行過程十分艱辛，沿途都是碎石陡坡，加上零下五度的湖邊，冷到連相機都凍住，更是意志力的考驗。

[[登山愛好者王朵米]]
“我是蠻想在湖邊過夜，所以就是有揹蠻多露營的東西上高海拔的地方，負重大概十五公斤左右，這樣走一個禮拜算是蠻不輕鬆的，有點累這樣子，體力也是需要訓練”

雖然不像攀登世界十大高峰，需要大筆經費，但她還是靠自己的能力來完成夢想。

[[登山愛好者王朵米]]
“它是屬於一般健行，就是我們所謂的一般登山，並不需要像其他高手那樣，可能要找很多贊助，要組織一個團隊，花費可能是數百萬的金額這樣，這趟花費大概十七萬左右，就是說便宜也不便宜，出發前是有到處打工，自己存了一筆旅費這樣”

過程中，她還遇到尼泊爾當地的職業越野車手挑戰騎乘機車上山，創下尼泊爾境內機車所登上的最高海拔記錄，意外成了見證人。

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Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng answered lawmakers’ questions on Wednesday about Taiwan’s preparedness for a Chinese attack. Chiu stressed that Taiwan’s military was always ready to respond, but would not stir up conflict in the strait. He also added that if needed, Taiwan would be able to mobilize up to 200,000 troops in the 24 hours following a strike by China.

Chiu Kuo-cheng
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Defense minister Chiu Kuo-cheng once again stated that Taiwan would have a chance at winning against China in a conflict. He added that the military is not afraid of defending Taiwan against an attack, but would also not seek to stir up conflict. In recent days, Chiu has been asked on many occasions to comment on China’s use of intimidation. KMT lawmaker Cheng Li-wen on Wednesday compared a Chinese attack on Taiwan to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has been going on for almost a year. She asked the minister whether Taiwan would be able to last that long against China without assistance from the U.S.

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For Taiwan, having U.S. assistance or not makes a big difference.

Chiu Kuo-cheng
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I’d like to report to you all that my opinion has not changed. We’ll rely on ourselves for our defense.

Chiu says he is confident in Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities. Another lawmaker asked him how many troops Taiwan would be able to mobilize in the 24 hours following a strike from China. The number is 200,000, according to Chiu.

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How many troops can be mobilized within 24 hours of an attack?

Chiu Kuo-cheng
Minister of national defense
We can do 200,000 troops. We wouldn’t need that many right away. But we would see the situation in different areas and gradually deploy them. We’ve conducted drills in the past. So it would absolutely be possible to do that in 24 hours.

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Annual rainfall in Yilan’s Ximao Mountain approaches 10,000mm

The recent inclement weather has brought record rainfall to northeastern regions of the country, including Yilan’s Ximao Mountain, where 4,574 millimeters of rain fell in October alone. Forecasters say rain will continue until Friday, and seasonal winds will persist until Wednesday next week. Temperatures are also expected to drop to the mid teens by next week.

Northeasterly winds, combined with peripheral effects of a recent storm and typhoon, have brought extremely heavy rainfall to Yilan in recent days. Especially hard hit was this mountainous area, which has the highest accumulated rainfall nationwide so far this year.

A post on a Facebook page where people discuss typhoons in Taiwan brought attention to rainfall data collected on Yilan’s Ximao Mountain.

Total rainfall for October reached 4,574 millimeters. That’s the heaviest rainfall recorded by any weather station in Taiwan over the course of the month. Since the beginning of the year, the mountain has seen more than 9,500 millimeters of rain. One meteorologist says the area could see more than 10,000 millimeters before the year ends.

Chen Kao-chu
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The peripheral effects of typhoons combined with northeasterlies both impacted local weather in the county. There’s also Datong Township in Nan’ao, where there is a windward mountain face that always gets rainfall. On some days more than 1,000 millimeters of rain will fall on that mountain.

Previously, the Central Weather Bureau had named Daping in New Taipei’s Wanli District as the rainiest place in Taiwan. The village gets an average of more than 6,500 millimeters of rain every year. Now that a weather station has been installed on Ximao Mountain, it could be a contender for rainiest place.

Liu Yu-chi
Forecaster
Information from both our manned weather station and our automatic weather sensors confirmed that October rainfall there was the highest. However, the Ximao weather station only has five years’ worth of weather data, and to really understand a location’s weather patterns we need to look at 30 years of data. That’s the only way to get a complete picture of the area’s climate.

As Ximao’s sensors have not been in place for very long, there is not enough historical data to determine whether Ximao could dethrone Daping as the rainiest place in Taiwan. Meanwhile, with rain continuing unabated in Yilan, Keelung and mountainous areas near Taipei, the weather bureau has been issuing heavy rainfall warnings.

Liu Yu-chi
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The rain is likely to continue until Friday, and maybe throughout the weekend. There will be some rainfall all across Taiwan. Moisture will start to decrease, and by Monday we should start to see the rain dissipate.

By Wednesday or Thursday, the northeasterlies will begin to weaken and the weather will improve. However, northeasterly winds are expected to pick up again by the end of next week, bringing temperatures down to roughly 16 degrees until Sunday in the plains.

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On Monday evening, another earthquake struck at Taitung’s Donghe Township. Fortunately, no people were hurt. Tremors like these often shake Taiwan, because of the movement of tectonic plates. These ground movements also gradually shift Taiwan’s location in the world.

The Central Weather Bureau recently released two maps showing the absolute speed and relative speed at which different areas of Taiwan moved due to tectonic action between 2009 and 2018. The blue arrows represent the direction of the shift, and their length represents the distance of the movement. The maps left some internet users wondering whether that meant that Taiwan was gradually moving away from China. A seismologist says that’s not the case.

Chao Hsiao-ling
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Taiwan Earthquake Research Center
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Tender breast of duck is offset by caramelized pumpkin puree. Spanish carabinero prawns with desiccated persimmons are a many-layered treat. These are Thomas Buhner’s signature dishes. Now Buhner’s restaurant menus will move from Germany to Taiwan.

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We visited together a street-food kitchen in Kaohsiung. We have had an oyster dish. For me it was amazing – poached oysters with a sauce based on soy.

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He mixes the butter and flour thoroughly. Then he adds the dough into a plastic bag and puts it into the refrigerator.

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Cheng Hsien-hao
Pie baker"
In the past, I also have been to America for a language school for maybe around three months. During that time, I also went to New York and California to try their desserts. I really enjoyed it. When I came back to Taiwan, I met Way. He had the same problem; he couldn’t find the same flavor with his mom’s apple pie. We said, "Maybe we can try making it ourselves." I still remember when he took the pie out of the oven. He tasted it and said, “Finally, we can have a slice of home here in Taiwan.”

Before starting their business, Cheng worked in marketing. His business partner taught English in Taiwan. Cheng says they learned how to make pies by experimenting.

Cheng Hsien-hao
Pie baker
We studied by ourselves because Way already had the flavor in his brand. So we just tried to look at a lot of recipes. We tried again and again. We just try and taste it. Actually, we also spend a lot of time doing other desserts. Our company’s goal is to make people feel that they have the home taste anytime and anywhere in Taiwan. Especially, the feeling of home. Especially, use western ingredients.

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