Police in central China imposed traffic curbs at the weekend to halt a viral craze in which thousands of university students borrowed share bikes to ride overnight to the city of Kaifeng in search of breakfast.
The “Night Riding Army,” as some participants described it, clogged a highway on Friday, pictures posted on social media showed, a surge in turnout for a rolling flash mob that had been gathering riders for months.
“Last night’s ‘Night Riding Army’ was spectacular,” one rider posted. “Two lanes were opened, but that simply was not enough: The cycling army accounted for four!”
Photo: AFP
The event was part of a trend of young Chinese traveling on the cheap — “like special forces” — and spending as little as possible at a time of scarce job prospects, when wages are under pressure.
The riders traveled on a straight road more than 60km long beside the Yellow River that links Zhengzhou, the largest city in Henan Province, with Kaifeng, an ancient capital famed for its soup dumplings.
The trend was set off in June, Chinese media said, after four female college students chronicled their ride on social media to eat dumplings in the morning.
Photo: AFP
“The Night Ride to Kaifeng: Youth is priceless, enjoy it in time,” was the hashtag on social media for the ride, which state broadcaster CMG said tens of thousands of students had completed by the weekend.
Key to its success was a glut of shared bikes, which can be rented for as little as US$1.95 a month. Pictures posted by riders showed thousands of the bikes had overrun downtown Kaifeng by Saturday.
In addition to the traffic controls, the largest bike-sharing platforms, Hellobike, DiDi Bike and Mobile, said their vehicles would lock down if ridden out of a designated zone, while media told the students to grow up.
“Youthful freedom does not mean following the trend and indulging oneself,” one news outlet admonished in a comment. “Kaifeng is worth arriving slowly and savoring carefully,” read the headline of another.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
LAOS: The bars of bustling Vang Vieng remain open, but information on the investigation into the deaths of six backpackers from suspected methanol poisoning is scarce The music is still playing and the alcohol is still flowing at the bars along one of the party streets in Vang Vieng. Inside a popular venue, a voice over the speaker announces a special offer on beers, as disco lights flicker on the floor. Small paper flags from nations across the world — from the UK to Gabon — hang from the ceiling. Young people travel from all corners of the globe to party in the small town nestled in the Laos countryside, but Vang Vieng is under a global spotlight, following a suspected mass methanol poisoning that killed six
RSS