(CFP)

Four swimmers of the Zhang Jian Crossing Team successfully swam across the 24-km Kanas Lake, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on July 9, accomplishing another challenge of swimming in low temperatures.

The successful crossing brought Zhang Jian, the coach and founder of the team, into the spotlight.

Zhang, 47, is the first Chinese to popularize the sport of crossing in China. He has conquered many lakes, rivers and seas over the past decades, such as the Qiongzhou Strait in 1988, the Bohai Strait in 2000 and the English Channel in 2001.

In 2005, he founded the Zhang Jian Crossing Team, which was made up of eight men and eight women athletes. Under Zhang's leadership, these athletes have accomplished many crossings.

"I hope, with the efforts of our team, greater numbers of people in China come to know and fall in love with open-water swimming and enjoy the feeling of challenging themselves and communicating with nature during their crossing," said Zhang.