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On May the 31st, 1956, Mao Zedong visited Wuhan. There he received a report on progress in the construction of the Yangtze River Bridge – the first road-and-rail bridge to be built over the Yangtze since 1949.
The weather was pleasant and the Chinese leader was in a good mood. He said he'd like to take a dip. And so, for the first time, Chairman Mao swam across the Yangtze. He spent two hours in the water, swimming the 15 kilometres from Sheshan to Hankou. His route took him beneath the still unfinished Yangtze River Bridge.
Several days later, he wrote the poem, Swimming.
I have just drunk the waters of Changsha
and come to eat the fish of Wuchang.
Now I am swimming across the great Yangtze,
looking afar to the open sky of Chu.
Let the wind blow and waves beat, better far
than idly strolling in a courtyard.
Today I am at ease.
It was by a stream that the Master said—
“Thus do things flow away!“
Sails move with the wind.
Tortoise and Snake are still.
Great plans are afoot:
A bridge will fly to span the north and south,
turning a deep chasm into a thoroughfare;
Walls of stone will stand upstream to the west,
to hold back Wushan's clouds and rain,
till a smooth lake rises in the narrow gorges.
The mountain goddess if she is still there,
will marvel at a world so changed.
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