Bad mood? Go ice swimming

2006-03-09 15:43

By Audra Ang

Harbin - It's so cold it hurts to breathe, but Wu Jing wears only a purple swimsuit and ruby-red high heels as she struts around a pool cut into river ice 60cm thick.

In minutes, she will join a dozen other swimmers in the frigid Songhua River, part of a twice-daily show where performers ham it up on diving boards made of ice blocks covered in hemp sacks before splashing down the length of the 25m by 10m ice-hole.

Wu waves to warmly dressed spectators who have paid 30 yuan ($3.70) each to watch and huddle behind a wooden barrier. It's -18°C under the morning sun.

"How are you today?" she calls, smiling and tossing her long, black hair as they snap photos of her. "Welcome!"

Harbin is a hot destination when it's cold, drawing millions of tourists each year to a winter festival whose highlights include replicas of world monuments painstakingly modelled out of ice. Think Arc de Triomphe and a Big Ben lookalike.

There's an ice-carving competition, a Siberian tiger park, sledding and a restaurant made of ice, where customers cook meat and vegetables in boiling broth at the table.

Becoming more popular

Then there's ice swimming in the heart of Harbin in the broad Songhua River.

Winter swimming began in China in the late 1940s and has unexpectedly taken off, said Lin Senlin, secretary general of the China National Swimming Association's Winter Swimming Committee.

Lin said there are now about 200 000 registered amateur ice swimmers in China - mostly retirees - although there are likely more unofficial participants.

"It's become more and more popular each year," said Lin.

The purported health benefits are the main draw, he said: "Through practice, diseases like high-blood pressure and heart disease can be eased, even cured."

There are annual winter swimming championships and international competitions, highlighting interest in parts of the United States, Canada, Finland and Russia.

Unlike other Chinese and foreign cities where swimmers get together informally for "polar bear swims," the performance in Harbin charges admission to spectators.

With an announcer yelling a running commentary through a megaphone, the show is short - and a little anti-climactic.

The swimmers, mostly retirees between 50 to 70-years-old, jog out from a rundown building, stretching and vigorously flailing their arms to warm up. Some wear white swim caps with the Chinese flag. Others have canvas shoes and rubber gloves.

One by one, they jump, dive or slowly climb down a ladder into the water. They dip their faces in, blowing and sputtering like whales as they adjust to the cold.

They climb out after swimming a length or two, a minute and a half at the most. And the show is over.

"It's not that great but the participants are old, not young. It's very touching," said Zhai Shanshan, 30, a tourist from neighbouring Liaoning province.

The Harbin swimmers practice about three times a day, between December and March. They are paid 6 yuan (75 cents) for each show.

One of the rare times that performances were disrupted was when a chemical spill polluted the Songhua in November and running water was shut down to the city for five days.

Wu Jing, the 52-year-old "Queen of Ice Swimming," said the activity helped her get over a divorce and realise her lifelong dream of being in the spotlight.

Get rid of a bad mood

"At first, it helped me to get rid of my bad mood. Then I felt it was good for my health and good for society," said Wu, who wears a thick layer of mascara and a slash of bright red lipstick.

She said she got her nickname from Russian ice swimmers when she beat them in a competition in the 1990s.

For 78-year-old Fan Xuetong, ice swimming is the best way to "raise the body's resistance."

"It gets the adrenaline going, it makes me feel good," said Fan, who was bundled in a thick towel after the show. "We are all healthy. We don't get sick."

Yuan Hongbo, 70, has been ice swimming for 20 years, and drinks a warm glass of milk before braving the cold.

"It heals people. I used to have rheumatism," said Yuan. "When you first get in, it's very cold. Then after a while, it feels comfortable."

- AP