Wuhan swimmers splash in river again

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December 15, 2020

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Wuhan swimmers splash in river again

Source: AFP | 00:00 UTC+8 December 15, 2020 |

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Standing beside a large picture of Mao Zedong, Shen Peihua recalls the moment she resumed her daily swim in the Yangtze River in Wuhan after the Chinese city’s long coronavirus lockdown.

“I felt so happy, it was like being reborn,” the 68-year-old said.

Even in winter temperatures of about 15 degrees Celsius, a steady flow of hardy men and women wade into the brown waters of the mighty river and swim into the distance.

The tradition pre-dates Mao, but it was embedded in Wuhan’s consciousness in 1966 when the then-73-year-old founder of New China proved he was in robust health.

The riverbank is usually alive with people singing, dancing, flying kites, fishing or simply enjoying a romantic walk.

All that stopped when the coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan about a year ago. The city of 11 million people was placed into a strict lockdown in January that dragged on for 76 days.

Some even feared that the waterway might somehow be carrying the virus, which killed nearly 4,000 people in Wuhan.

“We did not swim for a few months after the city was closed and basically did not swim here from the end of January to the beginning of April,” Shen said.

At about 6,300 kilometers and stretching from Tibet to the East China Sea, the Yangtze is the third-longest river in the world. Together with a tributary, the Hanjiang River, it slices through Wuhan, and the two waterways are the central city’s lifeblood.

Shen says she did not learn to swim until she was in her 50s and was inspired by Mao.

“We saw that chairman Mao in his 70s was still swimming in the Yangtze so we learnt from him to swim in the big waves of the river,” she said. “We’re sons and daughters of a river city and people living by two rivers and four banks. Having such a good source of water, we must swim in the Yangtze River.”

Mao made it famous but according to locals, people traditionally swam in the river because there used to be no pools, and the city is fiercely hot in summer. Swimming is an integral part of Wuhan lifestyle, and there is even a museum celebrating it.

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Wuhan swimmers splash in river again

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