A middle-aged farmer from Guizhou Province is planning an epic marathon from the south to the north of the country to urge more rural residents to keep fit.

The man plans to spend five months next year running about 7,000 kilometres from Sanya in South China's Hainan Province to Mohe in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

He plans to spend a further four months in 2008 running another 6,000 kilometres from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to Ningbo in Zhejiang Province.

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