Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

Police in China say they have stopped a man who managed to escape a locked-down city of 7.5 million people by rowing across Asia’s longest river in a bathtub so he could go to work.

The individual, who has not been named, reportedly rowed his way across the Yangtze River on 29th January in an attempt to get to his workplace in the city of Jiujiang in China’s eastern province of Jiangxi.

Local authorities reported that he got into his bathtub on the banks of Wuxue, which together with Wuhan are both in central Hubei Province, and which are both locked down because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The rower was intercepted in Jiujiang and sent back across to Hubei Province, the police said.

According to reports, the man decided to row out of Hubei as both the first and second Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridges have been shut to all traffic.

An unnamed officer with the Jiujiang Public Security Bureau told local media: “He rowed over from the north bank, and Jiujiang police discovered him.

“A colleague of mine said the man had been rowing [the bathtub] for 20 years.

“He said he was going to work.”

The individual is understood to have been let off with a warning.

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