Ice, snow, ice pose no obstacle for winter river swimmer

Yu Xiaofeng warms-up before diving into the freezing Songhua River, where recent temperatures dropped to as low as -20 C in Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)

In the past 26 years, Yu Xiaofeng has never curtailed her daily swim in the Songhua River, even when temperature recently dropped to as low as -20 C in Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

Yu, 55, a retired civil servant, is famous among winter swim enthusiasts in the city.

"I was born in Harbin and fell in love with swimming in my childhood, but until 1994, I never thought I could swim in the freezing Songhua River," she said. "In the late autumn of that year, I found some of my colleagues swimming in the river and decided to give it a try."

"Because it was not very cold at that time, I finished practice that was quite different from before," she said. "When the weather became gradually cold, I found that I had adapted to the freezing water in the winter."