Christchurch is on the lookout for a top swimmer to represent it at next year's annual swim across the Yangtze River held by its sister city in China.
China's longest river, the Yangtze, separates the provinces of Sichuan (R) and Yunnan (L). Photo: AFP
The port city of Wuhan has asked Christchurch to put up a competitor and the mayor, Lianne Dalziel, has asked swimming officials to recommend someone.
As the mayor says, the event celebrates a famous swim across the river by the founder of communist China in 1966.
"It was something that Mao Tse Tung did and because he did that it's a symbolic swim as well.
"And there are people who enter the competition, but there are also people who swim that day for the sheer enjoyment of it."
Ms Dalziel said the competitive swim has significant prize money attached to it.
