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.
The swimmers had trained daily throughout the year for this moment.
They first had to carve out a pool in the Songhua River, thawing the 10-centimeter (4-inch) thick ice that froze overnight. Then they stripped down and, one by one, plunged into the bone-chilling waters of the pool about 10 meters (33 feet) long.
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. She said the waters in her home city were warmer than those in Harbin, where the temperature was about 0 C (32 F).
The experience strengthened her confidence in winter swimming, a sport she has been devoted to for about two decades.
“I felt prickling all over my body,” said Chen, 56. “But it still made me feel blissful."
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. In 1983, the city's winter swimming association was established.
Yu, 61, said she found a sense of a big family and joy during her 30 years of swimming.
“Since the pandemic, we came up with a slogan: Rather suffer through winter swimming than line up at the hospital,” she said, adding that winter swimmers appeared to have better health than others.
You Decang, 76, said swimming kept him healthy and he had never caught a cold.
"If I go just one day without winter swimming, I feel quite uncomfortable,” he said.
