North Korea Border Swim Club - Launched May 9, 2018 - Full multimedia experience: audio, stills, text and or video: Go to zReportage.com to see more - They call themselves the Yalu River Swimmer's Association, and some of them have been swimming together for 20 years or more. While on assignment in Dandong, China last December, ZUMA photographer Elijah Hurwitz happened upon a group of swimmers who took their laps in unlikely waters: the Yalu River. It's a 500-mile long waterway that borders China's Liaoning province on one side, and North Korea on the other. 'The stronger swimmers will sometimes cross the entire width and then rest in the shallows of Sinuiju, North Korea before swimming back, but nobody I spoke with has ever run into trouble with North Korean border guards,' Hurwitz said. 'As long as they stay in the water they seem to be left alone.' When Hurwitz first noticed people swimming in the river, it was about zero degrees Fahrenheit outside, cold enough that his camera batteries barely lasted. The swimmers, however, were doing laps in half-frozen water, many of them without wetsuits. 'Seeing their big smiles and gusto for life felt like a stark contrast to the barren landscape of North Korea on the opposite shore and the doomsday specter of nuclear war,' Hurwitz said.
© Elijah Hurwitz/ZUMA Wire
December 27, 2017 - Dandong, China - Mr. Zhang Lao Xi poses for a portrait after an afternoon swim.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 28, 2017 - Dandong, China - Backstroke practice in Dandong, China.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 29, 2017 - Dandong, China - CHANG YU QING poses for a portrait by the Yalu River after her daily swim.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 28, 2017 - Dandong, China - A plastic bag used to help a swimmer slip into their wetsuit is seen here filled with water after a swim.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 29, 2017 - Dandong, China - A swimmer who declined to be named, but said 'I've been swimming these waters for 20 years and never had a problem with the North Koreans.'
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 31, 2017 - Dandong, China - A swimmer retrieves a frozen duck from the river before the start of the annual Yalu Swimmer Festival.
© Elijah Hurwitz/ZUMA Wire
December 26, 2017 - Dandong, China - CHANG YU QING stretches before her morning swim in the Yalu River. The 491 mile river forms a natural border between China and North Korea and is heavily monitored on both sides, though Chinese swimmers are generally not harassed by North Korean border guards on the opposite shore if they remain in the shallows.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 29, 2017 - Dandong, China - A swimmer prepares to enter the freezing Yalu River on the North Korean border.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 27, 2017 - Dandong, China - SHI FU ZHI poses for a portrait. According to other swim club members, he is also a talented piano player.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 29, 2017 - Dandong, China - HE JIANGUO during a snowfall along the Yalu in December.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 28, 2017 - Dandong, China - Swimmer's footprints are seen during low tide on the Yalu River.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 28, 2017 - Dandong, China - Swimmers enter the river on a cold winter morning.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 29, 2017 - Dandong, China - HE JIANGUO stretches in the men's locker room after an afternoon swim. He has been swimming in the Yalu River for five years.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 28, 2017 - Dandong, China - A swimmer stretches out in a colorful wetsuit before entering frigid waters.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 30, 2017 - Dandong, China - Swimmers socialize in the locker room near the river.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 28, 2017 - Dandong, China - TAN, who has been swimming in the Yalu River for 5 years, finishes an evening swim during a snowfall.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 31, 2017 - Dandong, China - Spectators watch swimmers during the annual Yalu Swimmer Festival.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
December 26, 2017 - Dandong, China - LIU YAO CHI swims toward the North Korean shore on a misty morning.
© Elijah Hurwitz/zReportage.com/ZUMA Wire
