Massive student bike ride in China causes highway shutdown over dumplings
Over 100‚000 students rode bikes at night between two Chinese cities looking for famous soup dumplings. The huge crowd blocked highways and led to new restrictions on night-time cycling
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
