Kaohsiung, Taiwan

A trainee pulls a fellow trainee, who is pretending to be injured, through sewage-contaminated water during the last week of a 10-week programme to become members of the Taiwan navy’s elite amphibious reconnaissance and patrol unit, at Zuoying navy base. The trainees have to endure everything from long marches to hours in the water, with constant screaming at them from their instructors. Of the group of 31 who started the course, only 15 completed it.

Photograph: Ann Wang/Reuters

Source: This post first appeared on The Guardian