In central China‚ a budget-friendly trend turned into a mass-movement that nobody expected (the local authorities had to deal with thousands of bike-riders on the citys main road). Students discovered a cool-way to get breakfast: riding share-bikes at night for 60km to reach Kaifeng.
The trend started about 5 months ago when Zhang Wei and three other students posted their night-ride story online; now its grown into something much bigger. Last weekend the so-called “Night-Riding Army“ took over multiple highway lanes:
The cycling army filled up four lanes‚ even though only two were open for us
Students found a super-cheap way to have fun - monthly bike rentals cost just $1.95‚ and the straight road along Yellow River connects Zhengzhou with Kaifeng (an old city known for its tasty soup-dumplings). The whole thing got so big that main bike-sharing companies: Hellobike DiDi Bike and Mobile had to put geo-limits on their bikes
Local media wasnt happy about all this telling young people to “act more grown-up“; but students dont seem to care much. Its worth noting that Chinese officials often limit big gatherings - like last months Halloween in Shanghai where they stopped people from making fun of stuff like job problems and stock market issues in their costumes