Cheered on by a large crowd, a chubby 41-year-old mainland university lecturer yesterday became the first person to swim from Hong Kong to Macau. Zhang Jian achieved the feat in 101/2 hours.
Zhang, from Beijing Sport University, also became the first person to swim across Lingding Yang, the bay at the mouth of the Pearl River.
The 35km trip from Hong Kong to Macau was expected to take 15 hours, but with favourable winds and currents, Zhang finished four hours early.
Zhang's feat is the latest in a string of swimming achievements - he swam the 33.8km English Channel in 2001 and 109km across the Bohai Gulf in 2000.
However, the Hong Kong-Macau crossing was still special, he said.
'Every cross-harbour swim is different,' said Zhang, sporting his beer belly under his navy blue full-body swimsuit. 'This time it was different because this is a river mouth. Also, in the past I completed all my swims on the first try. This time we had to postpone because of rough weather.'