Not Legal Advice: It was probably an old law, as several sources confirm that it was illegal to save a drowning person in China because the Chinese believe in fate, implacable and inflexible, with which you want to live in peace and harmony.
As per the book China: A History of the Laws, Manners and Customs of the People, they believe that the spirit of a person who has been drowned, continues to flit along the surface of the water until it has caused, by drowning, the death of a fellow-creature.
A person, therefore, who attemps to rescue another from drowning is supposed to insure the hatred of the uneasy spirit which is desirous, even at the expense of a man's life, to escape from its unceasing wanderings.
As it turns out there are a lot of places that have strange laws, though many are hopefully archaic and rarely enforced. Here are 14 strange laws to keep in mind next time you book a trip shared by Businessinsider.com.