First person to visit solo all 194 UN member countries: Yili Liu sets world record
Ann Arbor, MI, USA --Yili Liu, Ph.D., Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan, has visited all the 194 United Nations member countries as a solo traveler - setting the World Record for theFirst Person to visit all 194 United Nations member countries as a solo traveler.
Photo: Mr. Yili Liu (center) in Central African Republic. He notes: ""Central African Republic, though no easy matter to reach, has many of the brightest and warmest students".(enlarge photo)
The Guinness world record for thefastest time to visit all 194 United Nations member countriesis 3 years 3 months and 6 days and was achieved by Yili Liu (USA).
His visits during this period also set the new Guinness World Record for the Fastest Time to visit all UN member countries.
He has also visited numerous territories, dependencies, and places with partial international recognition for their declared independence.
He spent the 2011 New Year's Day in South Sudan (the perinatal independent country and the next UN member to come).
Mr Yili Liu visited all the 194 countries legally, with scheduled public transportation. He has visited all the 194 United Nations member countries as a solo traveler between September 23, 2007 and December 29, 2010.
He considers his travels in this record-setting period only the "allegro" of his global explorations: adagios and andantes preceded and now follow that singular episode of allegro.
All in all, since 2004, he has visited more than 100 countries at least twice, and he paid all the travel expenses with his own savings.
His travels merge his passion for global exploration and his profession as a teacher, researcher, and practitioner in human factors engineering (the study and improvement of human-machine-environment relationships) and psychology (the study of mind and behavior). Photo: From Mr Yili Liu's travel notes: Zambia and Zimbabwe share the spectacular Victoria Falls and end the alphabetical country list with a Zillion Zowie splashes". All All Photos from Mr. Yili's personal collection.(enlarge photo)
He tries to visit at least one university in each country he visits if possible, and he has visited universities in many countries (perhaps another World Record?).
He has been seriously learning and trying to use about a dozen languages, but they often run away from his head faster than being allured in. He has started to write two types of books--one in the scholarly and academic tradition and another for broad public readership.
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