'Asia tallest man' hospitalised in China

Wang Fengjun gets off a specially designed chair at a hospital in Zhengzhou, central China, on July 6, 2013. Wang, who is among the world's tallest living people, has been hospitalised for a hip replacement

A 2.55-metre (8 foot 4 inch) Chinese man who is among the world's tallest living people has been hospitalised for a hip replacement, reports said. Wang Fengjun has been measured as 29 centimetres taller than China's towering former NBA basketball player Yao Ming. According to the Zhengzhou Evening, a paper in his home province of Henan, Wang's hands are 30 centimetres long and he wears specially made size-75 shoes. Chinese media widely describe him as Asia's tallest man. Wang, 37, developed gigantism due to a tumour on his pituitary gland. He has been suffering from osteonecrosis of the hips and was offered free treatment by a Henan hospital. China's Yao Defen was the world's tallest woman at 2.34 metres when she died last year aged 40.