Among those taking part in Wednesday's event in Guangzhou city was Huang Huahua, the governor of booming Guangdong province, and Guangzhou mayor Zhang Guangning, the Southern Daily newspaper reported.

"The main significance of swimming the Pearl River is to show that we have confidence and are determined to clean up and protect the river," the paper quoted Huang as saying.

"This is not going to be an easy task because the pollution is really serious."

In 2003 the government implemented a plan to clean up the river, mandating that the water should be "neither black nor stinky" by 2005 and that river waters should run "clear" by 2010.

But some swimmers were not impressed.

"Under the water, I could not see things 0.5 meters in front of me. And my eyes were uncomfortable," a swimmer surnamed Fan told Xinhua news agency.

The Pearl River, China's third largest, runs through Guangdong province, the powerhouse of the nation's export-oriented economy. It has suffered for decades from industrial pollution and raw untreated sewage.

Huang admitted that the water along parts of the river remains too polluted to swim in and that this year's crossing was scheduled at the height of the rainy season which ensured cleaner water, the paper said.

"For 30 years no one has been able to swim in the Pearl River. In the coming 30 years we must strengthen our determination to clean up the Pearl River," Huang said.

"Right now we can swim in the river, this has not come easily."

China's quarter-century economic boom has paid little heed to the environment with more than 70 percent of the nation's rivers and lakes seriously polluted and over 300 million rural residents lacking access to clean water, Xinhua said.

But in recent years, the government has begun attaching more importance to environmental protection and has begun funding more clean-up projects.

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