To the Far Corners of the Earth--The Adventures of Alan Hsu

Although his Chinese name includes a character for a legendary soaring bird, Alan Hsu has always chosen to face the important trials and tribulations of his life with feet firmly planted on the ground, walking laboriously through periods of hardship and difficulty along his journey. In 1985, he set out on a two-year journey on foot around the globe with 30 kilos of gear on his back, as one of group who called themselves the "four globetrotting strongmen." Even earlier, while he was in high school and college, this little fellow with the dusky skin and bright eyes scaled many of Taiwan's mountains, clinging precariously to the steep slopes

Even at present, this low-key fellow shuttles back and forth on the bus between sponsors and the media making final preparations for the "Gazing at Zheng He's Era" expedition. Although standing less than 170 centimeters tall and almost unnoticeable when walking on the streets of Taipei, Hsu has but to open his mouth and his voice booms like a great bell. "I live out dreams for other people," he says magnanimously.

This man who lives out dreams for other people, 40 and still single, has been made famous by exploration, which has also given him the chance to spend his days traveling the world.

Mr. Atlas

To achieve his dreams, Hsu relies on his outstanding willpower and the strength built up in his legs over many years of mountain climbing. Just after finishing his studies and completing his military service in 1985, Hsu competed in a global trek around the globe sponsored by a local daily newspaper, the Independence Evening Post.

After circling the globe, Hsu settled into the stable life of a salaryman. However, this adventurous spirit, who feels that sleeping in the wild is more comfortable than sleeping in a bed, seemed destined to return to the mountains, to the unpopulated wilds, and to the swift currents of the sea. In December 1999, Hsu boldly put forth the most ambitious plan ever for explorers in Taiwan. He announced that within ten years, he would organize expedition teams to retrace the paths of Genghis Khan and Zheng He.

"Zhang Qian, Xuanzang, Faxian, Genghis Khan, and Zheng He were the greatest conquerors on land and sea of all the great Chinese explorers," explains Hsu.

Today, with the opening up of new frontiers for human activity, almost every corner of the earth has been visited by the footsteps of man, with the exception of the far reaches of space. Add the surge in tourism, and it's impossible to discover still unknown places. Moreover, the rare places of extreme difficulty, such as the North and South poles and Mt. Everest, have become prizes for national prestige. As a result, Hsu would rather take history as his teacher and revisit the glories of China's past. He considers the conquests of Genghis Khan and the voyages of Zheng He examples of this past greatness. Yet, after announcing plans to retrace these two expeditions, Hsu moved from center stage to a spot behind the curtain, where he relied on past experience to take on responsibility for arranging the projects and helping other explorers realize their dreams.

At the helm

Speaking from the hard-won experience gained in the expedition "Trekking Without Genghis Khan," Hsu points out that large-scale contemporary exploration is inseparable from academic study, culture, the media, entrepreneurship, advertising, and outdoor activities. It has become a complex, many-layered endeavor. "In the age of empire, what the emperor supported came to be," Hsu says. "Today, aside from drumming up funds, the support of academic institutions is essential, especially for large-scale sea expeditions like "Gazing at Zheng He's Era."

Since leaving his job in 1999, Hsu has visited mainland China 16 times with the support of friends. He has secured the backing of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' (CASS) Research Center for Chinese Borderland History and Geography, the tourism bureaus of the cities of Nanjing and Taicang, and various academic and entrepreneurial groups. While the expedition is at sea, experts from CASS will join the it and undertake an academic investigation into this "silk road of the sea."

The "Gazing at Zheng He's Era" expedition is expected to cost in total NT$150 million. Counting out any major unforeseen problems, the ships should be able to make the entire voyage by sail power alone. They will set off next year and are expected to take three years to complete the 34,000-mile route. If the expedition sails according to schedule, the voyage will be completed in 2009, ten years after preparations began.

On July 11th, 2005, 600 years to the day after Zheng He set out, the expedition will weigh anchor at the port city of Taicang, Jiangsu Province, and trace Zheng He's original course. En route, the expedition will pass more than 20 countries and 50-plus ports before arriving at the final destination of Malindi, near modern Mombasa, a coastal city in the East African nation of Kenya.

Return of glory

Even in this age when the West still dominates exploration activities, the eunuch Zheng He, a favorite of the emperor, has received a high degree of attention in Western exploration circles in recent years. Even the New York Times pointed out that Zheng He set out earlier than Columbus by at least 60 years. If China had been interested in Europe, which was relatively backward compared with China of that day, it is possible that the Ming rulers could have carried their banner all the way to Europe and possibly have even discovered the new continent of America earlier than Columbus.

"In the days when Zheng He ruled the waves," Hsu stresses, "China basically still embraced a moral system of kingship, and there was therefore no pillaging or colonizing during Zheng He's voyage."

With the assistance of various parties, Hsu's own organization, the Society of Extreme Exploration, tracked down boatmakers in the Chinese provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian already familiar with ancient shipbuilding techniques. The expedition's ship will be a three-masted junk, 25 meters long and six meters broad, with a draft of two meters. (In order to make it more suitable for the open sea, the builders will change the original flat-hulled design to one with a keel.) The ship is expected to be finished before the 2005 Chinese New Year.

From late 2003 to early 2004, the explorers' associations held separate press conferences in Taipei and Beijing and recruited a crew of seamen with much fanfare, sparking a high degree of interest among Chinese people everywhere. During the recruitment activities, Hsu, who has walked in the footsteps of great explorers, emphasized that "all great expeditions rely on the contributions and efforts of each and every member at all times and also on the expertise of each team member and their ability to work together." Whether it's trekking around the globe on foot, or following in the footsteps of Genghis Khan and Zheng He, team spirit is the ultimate criterion in selecting expedition members.

"In fact, the educational value of exploration also lies here," Hsu explains. The two large-scale expeditions both tapped social resources, and the participants should think about the resultant social value of the exhibitions.

When Hsu speaks of his life of exploration, he talks as if it has all been plain sailing, full of marvels but without a hint of danger. But even in today's individualistic world, one adventurer at least believes that completion of the mission should always take precedence over self.

If exploration can help society to cultivate talented individuals, instilling in them willpower and decisiveness, those individuals should also be willing to sacrifice for the greater good of a group. They should look on themselves not as heroes but as representatives of mankind knocking at the gates of the unknown.

In Zhuangzi's "Free and Easy Wandering," a legendary fish of the Northern Sea transforms into a magnificent roc whose wings, when fully opened, block out the sun like a cloud. When the wind rises in June, a trail of spray accompanies the legendary bird as he flies toward the Southern Sea with his wings skimming the surface of the ocean.

Zhuangzi created an imaginary world in which that legendary bird has become immortal, his image arising in the dreams of the Chinese for generations and imprinted on the mind of Alan Hsu.

"Perhaps the course of things was predestined," Hsu says, smiling faintly while standing on the cusp of realizing his dreams.

Nearing the completion of his great dream, this famed adventurer with coordinates already fixed in his mind follows the movements of his own compass and waits only for the wind to rise.