Du Pinhua

Du Pinhua of China (born April 22, 1886?) is a claimant to the world's oldest person title and lives in Leshan. According to the Shanghai Great World Guinness Book of Records (unaffiliated with the similarly-named Guinness World Records in London), Du Pinhua was proclaimed the world's oldest person in 2002. The claim disappeared for almost four years before resurfacing in April 2006, when it was claimed that Du celebrated her 120th birthday. Again, her age has not been internationally recognized.

Guinness in London and the Gerontology Research Group both said at the time that María Capovilla of Ecuador was the world's oldest living person. Capovilla was born on September 14, 1889, more than three years after Du’s alleged birth date.

Lifestyle

Du lives in a mountainous area of the Huishan village, in the district of Wutongqiao depend on the town of Leshan, area which is characterized by its picturesque landscapes and its fresh air in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The China Daily report said that she celebrated her birthday with dozens of relatives and locals. Unfortunately, Du has never been interviewed in any depth and other than her age. When she turned 116, she credited her longevity to not eating meat until she was 110 and to never arguing with others. Having lost her parents during childhood, Du Pinhua was reduced to the begging then adopted by the monks of a local Buddhist temple. She adores fresh fruits and vegetables but never touched tobacco or alcohol. Currently, she shares her life with the family of her adoptive son, where she is happy to be surrounded by her adopted son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

In spite of being 116, she makes sharp spiritual remarks and possesses remarkable auditive acuteness. She astonished one journalist more than once by giving him a vigorous handshake.

In connection with Du, her neighbor Zhou Shunde, 84 years old, noticed what follows: “Tantine Du had already forty years when I was still very small. What I then knew of it, it is that it was a follower of Buddhism, that it followed a mode vegetarian, that it was nice, that it was never annoyed and that it was all the time smiling.”

Oldest person title

Official Chinese sources say that before Du Pinhua, “the oldest man of the world” was an American aged 115, and then a 114-year-old Japanese woman. After "confirmation", Du Pinhua is the world's "champion of longevity".

For Du to become the oldest person ever, she would have to outlive Jeanne Calment, who lived to be 122 years and 164 days. If Du is still alive, then by October 3, 2008, she will have lived as long as Calment, and on October 4th she will be the oldest person ever, if her age is ever verified. If still alive today, she would also be only the second person to have ever lived to 121.

fr:Du Pinhua