Exploits of the ice man

At this time of the year the water temperature is often about 2 C, and Xing usually swims 400 to 500 meters for eight to 11 minutes. When he is not doing this he may be somewhere practicing Chinese calligraphy or playing chess. Before the pandemic, he participated in about 10 games a year.

Winter swimming started to appear as a group activity in Beijing in the 1950s. At that time, with the vigorous promotion of the Municipal Sports Committee, mass physical exercises began to emerge in the city in winter. Pre-work gymnastics, inter-work gymnastics, long-distance running, soccer and basketball, cross-country running, table tennis, rope skipping, gymnastics and ice sports were among them, and Beijing was soon organizing winter swimming citywide.

In the 1960s the number of winter swimming enthusiasts in Beijing increased, producing mass winter swimming organizations. In January 1970, one day after heavy snowfall, Beijing's earliest winter swimming team, the Bayi Lake Winter Swimming Team, was established on the east bank of Bayi Lake.