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Bellyflopping Into the Icy Songhua River in Harbin, China
Falling into an icy river in the middle of winter is known to induce rather immediate trauma—about 1 minute to hypothermia, then shock, followed by death. That calculation applies to normal mortals, but in Harbin, China’s northernmost city, a long-running experiment in human adaptation is conducted under the circus sideshow atmosphere of a twice daily frozen river swimming and diving show. Tour groups huddle along the banks of the Songhua River and await the freaks of nature who will dive into the pool sized hole cut away from the ice. When these human marvels make their entrance in swim caps, flip-flops and togs, they look like a cast of characters you would more likely find playing mahjong in a retirement home. With the first splash into the -31C river, the crowd shrieks with terrible delight as the wonder of human adaptation hits squarely home and, for the moment, no onlooker with eyes peering out of wool caps, face masks, and scarves dares to utter, “I’m cold.”
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