Huang Yan has been going to the Polar Ocean World Aquarium in Qingdao, an eastern Chinese coastal city, for more than four months to swim with Xiao Qiang. Xiao Qiang is six years old, three metres long and weighs 450kg. Jing said she asked aquarium officials about letting her grandson swim with the beluga whale after he came home from an aquarium visit asking if he could "go and play with Xiao Qiang".

At first, officials were sceptical, said Mu Peng, director of the aquarium's publicity department. "But after discussions among aquarium managers, they decided to give it a try, " Mu said. Huang Yan was scared at first, his grandmother said. "But he and Xiao Qiang played a little and he got over his fear."

During the summer, eightyear-old Zhuang Huimin ran 3,560km from her home in the southern island province of Hainan to Beijing in 55 days, her father trailing behind on a scooter. Earlier this month, a father tied his 10-year-old daughter's hands and feet and watched her swim in a chilly river for three hours, saying it would help her achieve her dream of swimming the English Channel.