A man recited 11,324 geographic names in five hours last Friday in Beijing, surpassing a world record he set earlier, reports Beijing Times.

Liu Renjun started memorizing geographic place names in 1995, when he was still in high school.

From 1996 to 1999, he constantly added new names to his repertoire while working at part-time jobs.

He first set a record for the Shanghai branch of the "Guiness Book of World Records" in 2000 by reciting 8,856 names from memory.

Professor Zhao Zezong, who was also an organizer of Friday's show at the Beijing Union University, said the average person could remember about 3,000 geographic names at any one time. Liu's ability to recall 8,000 was already beyond the normal limit, he said.

But Liu is not a genius who can remember everything he sees and reads. Rather, his monumental efforts at memorization are responsible for his success, said Zhao.

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