Man's 1,500 mile inner-tube voyage

Cheng Yanhua, 41, from Hubei Province drifted into Shanghai the hard way yesterday - he had just paddled an inner-tube for two months down the Yangtze River from Chongqing City in south-west China.

His homemade raft was just a rubber tyre with a big plastic basin inside it. He used a couple of home-made bamboo paddles and had no safety equipment with him at all.

"It's almost a miracle that a man can survive a trip along the river floating on a tyre," said Wang Jiqin, a local maritime officer, who at first was suspicious of the adventure.



But Cheng was able to produce newspapers which he had collected from the provinces he travelled through, all with reports of his adventures.

He also kept a daily logbook and collected stamps from the sporting authorities of every city and county he passed through.

Cheng said he chose to paddle with the tide everyday to make the trip easier but having to crunch his legs up to fit inside the basin for nearly 10 hours everyday was painful.