In freezing temperatures, swimmers in China plunge into a river for health and joy Even as the mercury dropped below freezing, enthusiasm soared among about a dozen hardy swimmers during an annual ritual in northeast China’s ice city of Harbin.
Harbin resident Yu Xiaofeng said winter swimming in her city can be dated back to the 1970s, after locals saw Russian Orthodox faithful being baptized in the river.
She said the waters in her home city were warmer than those in Harbin, where the temperature was about 0 C (32 F).
Some said their limbs were already numb when the air temperature fell to minus 13 degrees Celsius (8 degrees Fahrenheit).
Chen Xia, from the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, dived into the river even though she was suffering from a cold.
