A night-time bike journey turned into a huge flash-mob when more than 100‚000 students rode between Zhengzhou and Kaifeng last friday (the event which started as a social-media trend to find tasty soup dumplings)
The 37-mile ride‚ named by its participants as the “Night Riding Army“ began as a low-cost food adventure about 5 months ago‚ when Zhang Wei and three other students shared their dumpling-seeking trip online. Since then the movement grew into something bigger - young people looking for cheap ways to have fun during tough economic times
- Shared bikes cost just $1.95 monthly
- Students rode for over 8 hours
- Many carried Chinese flags
- Participants sang national anthem
People sang together and cheered while climbing uphill; I could feel the passion of young people
The massive turnout led to traffic problems on the main highway connecting both cities; locals werenʼt happy when thousands of riders filled Kaifengʼs streets. Chinese officials first liked this “youth energy“ but changed their minds after seeing the chaos - they closed some bike lanes and made rental companies block their bikes use outside specific areas
Some determined students dont give up - they now walk for 11+ hours to reach the dumplings‚ while police and student volunteers try to stop new night rides. Local universities started keeping students on campus‚ showing how a simple food quest turned into a nation-wide movement