100,000 Chinese students ride bikes at night searching for good soup dumplings
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Photo courtesy of The Guardian
Kaifeng / China: Thousands of students riding bikes 50km for dumplings jammed major roads on Friday night in China’s Henan province, The Guardian reported.
It is reported that 100,000 people rode from their campuses in Zhengzhou to the city of Kaifeng.
The night-time cycling trend started by four Chinese students has gained wide attention with more people joining, making it a huge fad.
Four Zhengzhou university students decided in June to travel to Kaifeng searching for famous oversized soup dumplings, guan tang bao, in the city.
Students mostly rode public share bikes through Henan province inviting attention from authorities.
Liu Lulu, a student at Henan University, reportedly told China Daily that ‘people sang together and cheered for each other while climbing uphill together’, adding that ‘I could feel the passion of the young people. And it was much more than a bike ride’.
Footage circulating on social media showed students streaming on the expressway between Zhengzhou and streets of Kaifeng.
Official said that Kaifeng city’s public spaces, accommodation, restaurants got packed to capacity.
Authorities have stepped in to prevent similar jaunt by student putting temporary restrictions on roads and cycle paths for the weekend.
Alongside, bike share apps warned that they would remotely locks bikes that taken out designated zones in Zhengzhou.
Some universities in Zhengzhou have put in place measures such as banning cycles on campus, introducing passes to leave the grounds to prevent cycling trend.
When the cycling stated in June, the students posted their trip on social media launching a hashtag ‘Youth is priceless, night ride to Kaifeng has it’.
The trend began to work attracting more students with authorities initially welcoming this non-political activity.
The People’s Daily, official state media outlet, termed it “surge of young travellers”.
Kaifeng city, in a bid to attract domestic tourists, offered incentives such as free entry to its attractions.
However, the huge turnout of students to Kaifeng led to complaints from the city’s residents over garbage left behind and alongside there started debates about encouragement to the trend given by media and authorities.