What started with four Chinese students riding nearly 50 kilometres for soup dumplings turned into a night-time cycling trend, with thousands participating in it.
Dubbed the "Night Riding Great Army", the university students travelled on a straight road that connected Zhengzhou, the largest city in Henan province, with Kaifeng, an ancient city famed for its historic sites and soup dumplings.
The authorities initially encouraged the trend to promote local tourism but soon scrambled to curb the craze. Police officials were deployed, and bike lanes were shut after its popularity went out of hand and the intercity traffic was brought to a standstill.
Aerial photo shows college students riding bicycles on the Zhengkai Road in Zhengzhou
Photo Credit: AFP
In a statement, the Kaifeng city government cited the risk of riders falling and sustaining injuries, or blocking other road users from accessing medical care.
"(You) have demonstrated the wilful whimsy of youth," it said, "but... more and more people are starting to worry about the hidden dangers".
While piles of discarded bikes overwhelmed several streets in Kaifeng, commuters in Zhengzhou struggled to find one for themselves to ride back home.
Zhengkai Avenue, the main road connecting Zhengzhou with Kaifeng, was crammed with an endless flow of cyclists taking over the five car lanes in some sections.
The authorities in Kaifeng and Zhengzhou then closed bike lanes on Zhengkai Avenue over the weekend to stop the cyclists from entering the ancient city.
On social media, some students even claimed that the colleges and universities in Zhengzhou restricted students from leaving the campus to prevent them from joining the cycling crowd.
Three major bike-sharing platforms in Zhengzhou issued a joint statement and warned people that their bikes would get locked down automatically if they were taken out of the city.
Cyclists seen on a highway under cover of night to gorge on dumplings
Photo Credit: AFP
The trend reportedly started after four women college students from Zhengzhou decided to ride for several hours on shared bikes to reach Kaifeng in search of 'guan tang bao', the city's famous oversized soup dumplings.
The posts from their journey later gained massive attention on social media, triggering a new trend on the Chinese streets.
