A woman was surrounded by gawkers when she went swimming on a beach in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, with a python whose length was about four meters.

The woman may have appeared like any other beach-goer in her bathing suit,  but she shocked many fellow swimmers when she heaved her giant pet python into the water with her on Thursday afternoon.

"It was such a surprising sight! I had only seen pythons on TV programs," said Qu Guosheng, a resident who was nearby when the reptile appeared. "The owner of the python was so enthusiastic, so I took some photos."

"There were many onlookers standing at a distance, watching in fear, while some bolder ones, including me, went up and touched the python," said Qu, "It seemed very tame, and its owner was glad to offer it to anyone who wanted to take photos with it."

"According to the owner, she has had the python for 11 years, and she feeds it raw meat," added Qu. "But she didn't mention what species the python was."

This is not the only report of a Chinese person keeping a huge snake as a pet. In late July, a man was reported to have brought a large reptile to a public park. The pet was said to be a very rare species of Burmese python that can grow up to seven meters long.

Peninsula Morning News