How to swim in the Yangtze river

On my recent trip to Wuhan I came across the Wuhan Yangtze river swimming club, who meet twice a day in rain, snow or sunshine, dodge boats and navigate crazy currents all in the name of exercise. I was seriously impressed by how hard core these guys were, and I wanted to see if I could somewhat ‘get on their level’. I tried, I didn’t die (spoiler alert), and I live to tell the tale!