Swimming With Song Qingling

It's really been great having my dad here for the past few days. We've had the chance to get out of the city and head to the Fragrant Hills for a beautiful, albeit cold Sunday afternoon, eaten at numerous restaraunts, he's even accompanied me to some of my classes! The other day we went to see the former residence of 宋庆龄 (Song Qing Ling), the most famous of Sun Yatsen's wives (President of the Republic of China pre-Chiang Kaishek). The mansion was beautiful and relatively empty due to the below freezing temperatures. The real attraction, though, was to be found outside the mansion's protective stone lions, across the street on the banks of one of Beijing's three man-made lakes, Houhai.
There were 10 or 15 middle-aged and older men milling about in varying states of clothedness, some of them wearing only their skivvies. Upon going over to check out what was going on, we found that they were swimming in a hole they'd hacked out of the ice. I took some pictures and we chatted with them for a while, learning that the reason the water in this particular area was warm was because it flows from the Summer Palace. Hmmmm.... Let's not get into a discussion of Chinese logic again...

This old man is tougher than you.

The ice melted his face off!!
I felt like he was sucking the heat straight out of my body

Just as I was packing up my stuff to go, my dad came up and asked that I give him "three reasons not to take a dip". I was at a loss to come up with even one, and so the fun began. He borrowed a pair of swimming trunks from a more-than-willing old Chinese man, and in he went!

The first tentative steps onto the slippery ladder

I'm not sure if he's on the way in or the way out here,
but either way, it sure looks cold!

Stunned Chinese men lined up along the handrail at the edge of the lake to gawk, as my father, the Lao Wai, took a dip. There was much cheering and shouting- most of the shouting coming from my dad- I don't think any of them had expected to see a spectacle like this today, come to think of it, neither did I! I think he lasted for a minute or so before the cold became too much to bear, then he climbed back up the slippery ladder to be greeted by the applause of the entire crowd (which by then had at least doubled in size).

The champion triumphantly emerges to greet his fans

Who greet him with open arms and dry towels

Including his biggest fan!

All in all, a good time was had by everyone lucky enough to be walking by at that particular moment!

This guy certainly approves!