Xi Shun, a 2.38-meter-tall farmer from north China's Inner Mongolia, is applying for a new Guinness World Records as the world's tallest healthy adult.
   
Xi Shun, age 53, is 10 cm taller than Mu Tiezhu, a former well-known Chinese basketball player, and 12 cm taller than NBA star Yao Ming.
   
Xi is not the tallest man worldwide. He is outstripped by 2.45-meter-tall Wang Fengjun, from northeastern Shenyang and a 2.53-meter man in Ukraine.
   
But these other men reached their extraordinary heights by pathological growth. In other words, Xi Shun is the tallest healthy man in the world.
   
The conclusion was based on a medical check-up conducted on October 27. Xi underwent 22 kinds of tests including mental and physical check-ups. The medical results showed he is normal in everything.
   
Xi said he was same as other kids of his age before 16. But he grew fast starting at age 16. By 23, he reached the height of 2.38meters.
   
He was recruited as a basketball player by the Beijing Military Area Command in 1973 and but, failing to keep up with the speed of the other players, was let go in 1975. Since then, he has worked as a herdsman in his hometown in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia.
   
The boss of a local restaurant invited Xi to work there after his height was listed as a record in Chifeng. His employment there has turned business around. A flock of companies asked Xi to be the icon their products. Garment factories offered to provide him with Western suits, and special-made extra-large coats and shoes.

(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2004)