Zhang Jian Swims Across High-altitude Lake in Southwest China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, August 04, 2002

Zhang Jian Swims Across High-altitude Lake in Southwest China

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Chinese physical education teacher Zhang Jian, who became the first Chinese to swim across the English Channel in July last year, swam across a high-altitude lake on Saturday in southwestern China's Yunnan Province.

Zhang, 38, swam 34.2 kilometers across the Fuxianhu Lake in 12 hours and one minute.

The lake, some 60km south of the provincial capital Kunming, isabout 1,800 meters above sea level. Some 31km long and 11.5km wide, the lake has an area of 212 square kilometers.

With the water averaging 87 meters in depth and 158 meters as the deepest measurement, it is the second deepest fresh-water lakein China.

Zhang started the swim from the lake's southern bank at 9:28 hours (Beijing time) and reached his destination at the northern bank at 21:29 hours. The weather was fine and the water temperatures at the time ranged from 22.3 to 23.8 degrees centigrade.

Right after the adventure, Zhang received a medical check-up ina nearby hospital and the doctors declared he was in good health.

Zhang who works in the Beijing Physical Education University, had swum across such difficult waterways as the Bohai Bay Straightin north China, south China's Qiongzhou Straight, the Tianchi Lake,a volcano crater lake in northeast China, as well as the English Channel.

The swimming fan has declared earlier this year that his goal was to swim across all the three major straights in China. Up to now only one remains unchallenged -- the Taiwan Straight between China's mainland and the Taiwan Island.

"I'll try my best to reach that goal in the future, either by myself or through the efforts of my students," he said.

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