Well known as the busiest waterway on Earth, the Yangtze River recently became the temporary home for yet another human being. No surprise there. But this one was different. This guy was trying to swim home.
People end up in the Yangtze River for many different reasons. Ships capsize, some leap from the mighty “Da Qiao” in a suicide attempt. But as far as we know, only one has decided that the River’s choppy waters make for the best form of self-powered commute.
The gentleman in question hails from Anhui. And at this point, it is important to note that our neighbouring Province is upstream, or west of Nanjing. Our water bound friend seemingly had forgotten this fact when he took to the River. First though, his back story.
Coming to Nanjing in search of work, things started going badly wrong for the unnamed man when he lost his identity card and wallet here in the Southern Capital.
That meant no job, no money, nowhere to stay, no nucleic-acid test even. Poor him. He was severely out of luck.
It also meant no means to take a train or plane home.
Our hero then had a flash of inspiration, or something that illustrious publication, the Global Times, called on 11 August a “brilliant idea”. Not quite.
Filling his backpack with empty plastic bottles for flotation, he then found a plank and waded out into the Yangtze. He was going to swim home to Anhui.
But he had figured without the River’s current. The flow of the Yangtze varies with the seasons, periods of heavy rain or drought, the River’s width and depth, etc. However, a number of 1 metre per second is a good average. In other words, a not-too-shabby swim that could put you in the school team.
But we’re not talking a couple of lengths here. We’re talking 50-100 kilometres. While the waters at this time of year are comparatively warm, our Anhui friend made little headway against the current and soon tired.
And so he started drifting, further and further away from home. In fact, he drifted as far as Zhenjiang, the city neighbouring Nanjing to the east, another 100 kilometres away, but this time in the wrong direction. It was in its stretch of the Yangtze that police and rescuers were able to pluck him from the water.
The brave, but foolhardy effort has been applauded and dubbed, “Life of Pi in real life” by local people. But they’re overlooking something. In the 2012 movie, Pi had a tiger to talk to. Our guy had a plank.
