Ice swimming hot in Beijing

It’s always nice to see Beijing folk embracing the winter, despite of the cold weather, the fitness routine remains. Among all these activities, what demands a little more than just will power, is the winter swim, swimming in the iced cold water, which is something else!

The lake covered with thick layers of ice, so you can have a rough idea of the temperature in there, you see a man strip off down to this underwear and dive into an uncovered section of the frozen lake, brave huh, some may say its crazy!

But apparently theory has it that a couple of minutes in the icy water per day actually helps blood circulation and ward off disease, hmm, how exactly?

No wonder these people seem so energetic at their age, they joke around with each other, supporting each other with their own little ways, not only they look healthy, they look happy.

This couple has been winter swimming together for 14 years, they earned a little reputation around locals for being romantic, the locals joked that the lady has still got the killer’s body and call her a little swallow.

After a swim in the icy water, they usually dump room temperature tap water over their bodies to re-acclimate their skin reddened from the chill.

Although city officials say swimming in the lake is unsafe and that it may upset the tourism targeted scenery of the six central Beijing lakes, it didn’t stop the swimmers, they fought and they won.

Are you tempted at this point to have a go yourself? Well, as healthy as it may sound, winter swim is not for everyone.

I bet right now you all are trying to fit yourself into one of the those categories which shouldn’t be winter swim as an perfect excuse not to do it, emotionally depressed most likely, well I am not blaming you, I think I belong to the group who work to exhaustion.

Salute! To the winter swimmers!

Video: Lou Yi

Script/Editor: Huan CAO