Barely two weeks after learning to swim, the mayor of Guangzhou has beaten a field of 2,000 swimmers in an annual race across the Pearl River, coming second only to his boss, the city's Communist Party chief.
Immediately after completing the 800-metre race across the heavily polluted river, Guangzhou party secretary Zhang Guangning congratulated Mayor Wan Qingliang on his feat, saying: 'You deserve to be our role model for succeeding in mastering swimming skills in such a short time.'
Wan in turn congratulated his boss for winning the race, praising Zhang's remarkable swimming skills and thanking him for his encouragement over the 12 days of arduous training during which he had learned to swim.
'To be honest, my swimming skill is by no means good enough to enable me to swim across the 800- metre-wide Pearl River,' Wan conceded. 'Without the help of flotation materials, I would not have been able to make it.'
Zhou Xiaohui, a police officer with the Public Security Bureau in Guangdong province, was similarly impressed by the leaders' prowess, saying: 'I found myself surpassed by secretary Zhang and Mayor Wan and was left far behind, although I led at the beginning.'
Another entrant in the race, Gu Guangping, an official with the China Southern Power Grid, was quoted by Guangzhou Daily as saying: 'To me, an 800-metre swim means nothing. But I was short of breath when I tried to catch up with secretary Zhang today.'