The 24 Most Intense, Death-Defying Military Training Exercises from around the World

(Photo: Reuters/China Daily)

Would you jump through a ring of fire? If you’re a frontier soldier in the Chinese army, that’s a requirement. This Reuters photo from last year shows one soldier in the Heilongjiang province in the northeastern corner of China doing precisely that.

It’s one of 24 photos of elite soldiers around the world doing extraordinary things as part of their training. You can see more from Business Insider/Rocket News 24. They include US Marines drinking cobra blood, bare-chested South Korean soldiers covering themselves with snow, Filipino marines holding bananas on their heads, and German soldiers assembling guns underwater.