Free China junk: Taiwanese boat returning home 57 years after crossing the Pacific (Video)

The Free China, a Taiwanese junk which was sailed to California in 1955, will soon sail back over the 5,700 nautical miles whence it came, according to The Associated Press.

The news agency said the junk is a commercial vessel built 100 years ago and believed to be among the last salvageable boats of its kind. It was loaded today onto a Taiwanese freighter in Oakland to head back during an 18-day trip.

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The boat was sailed by six men during a yacht race. Here is a YouTube video showing an excerpt from a Robin Greenberg documentary on the boat:

The AP said Dione Chen, daughter of one of the original sailors, claimed the Taiwanese government planned to restore the boat and put it in a maritime museum.

Taiwan Today quoted Lung Ying-tai, Minster of the Cabinet-level Council for Cultural Affairs, as saying the boat’s 1955 crossing was “a miraculous international incident during the Cold War.”

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She noted that Taiwan was under martial rule due to tense relations with China PRC, and that no one was allowed to leave the island.

“It’s incredible that the five Taiwanese crew members—single fishermen without any special backgrounds—were able to obtain the government’s consent as well as U.S. visas,” she was quoted as saying.