Swimmers from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan are engaged in a swimming relay that is hoping to conquer the Taiwan Straits for the first time.

Rubber dinghies and jetskis escort swimmers participating in a relay swim that is attempting to conquer the Taiwan Straits for the first time in history, Aug 18. [Photo/pingtan.gov.cn]

The relay began at 12:48 pm Aug 18 at a fishing port in Taiwan’s Hsinchu county, with Taiwan resident Su Zijie being the lead-off man.

Su swam for about 12 kilometers in three hours, setting a nice pace for his successor Zhen Kexin from the mainland.

The continuing cross-Straits relay swim is attempting a course distance of 250 kilometers from Hsinchu to Pingtan county in Fujian province in 72 hours, with 14 participants taking 3-hour shifts throughout the event without breaks.

Apart from battling the waves and tides in the Straits, swimmers also have to face the risks of being attacked by marine creatures.

Each swimmer has been equipped with a shark repellent, a wetsuit that can protect against jellyfish stings, and a detector to monitor safety. There is also a pilot boat to help the swimmers to navigate the currents and the shipping lanes, according to the event’s organizer.

Su Zijie, when recounting his first section, said he felt generally good.

“I stopped (only) three times in the course because I wanted to be faster so my fellows could take fewer turns,” he said.

The young Taiwan man, who ate 40 dumplings after his swim, broke his personal record of long distance swimming. Previously he had only swum 5 kilometers in two hours.

The cross-Straits swim relay is catching lots of attention, not only because it is attempting to conquer the Taiwan Straits in an unprecedented way, but also because it has broken new ground in cross-Straits communications, according to Lin Join-Sane, chairman of the Taiwan based Straits Exchange Foundation.