Chinese Hotel Breaks Record for Largest Mermaid Show
To celebrate its third anniversary, one hotel decided to do something very different with its aquarium: perform the world's largest underwater mermaid show.
The Atlantis Sanya hotel on the island of Hainan, China, has mermaid shows every day. But on April 28, it broke the Guinness World Record for the largest show ever, with a total of 110 people taking part.
The hotel worked with the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) to find the performers, 90% of whom were already diving instructors.
The divers completed mermaid training and, after months of practice, they were ready. They put on their colorful tails and performed the show, swimming and doing underwater stunts — all without any equipment to help them breathe.
The show took place in the Ambassador Lagoon, an 11-meter-deep aquarium that is home to about 86,000 sea creatures.
Yan Lou, PADI's Greater China president, told CNN that when people see photos of mermaid diving, they "almost immediately" want to try it themselves.
Schools offering mermaid courses have opened around the world, but the sport has become hugely popular in China.
In December 2020, PADI launched four new courses teaching people how to swim like a mermaid — and three more courses for mermaid instructors. About four months later, Lou said that 30% of people doing a PADI course in China were taking one of the mermaid courses.
Scuba Schools International, another dive organization, offers mermaid courses in more than 3,000 locations around the world. In China, the organization now has 1,000 mermaid instructors.
