Student bike rides in China that sparked social media craze are halted by police

A night-time cycling trend that started with four Chinese students riding 30 miles for dumplings turned into a reported 100,000 people on Friday, jamming roads, overwhelming a small city and drawing the attention of authorities.

- Helen Davidson

The students, mostly on public share bikes, rode for several hours through Henan province from their campuses in Zhengzhou to the ancient city of Kaifeng.

"People sang together and cheered for each other while climbing uphill together," Liu Lulu, a student at Henan University, told China Daily. "I could feel the passion of the young people. And it was much more than a bike ride."

But Kaifeng quickly reached capacity, with accommodation, restaurants and public spaces packed to bursting, officials said. Videos online show tens of thousands of cyclists filling the six-lane Zhengkai Avenue, the expressway between Zhengzhou and the much smaller Kaifeng, as police used loudhailers to ask students to leave, by bike or on a free bus.

To prevent a repeat of Friday's event, authorities announced temporary restrictions on roads and cycle paths for the weekend, and bike-share apps warned they would remotely lock any bikes taken out of designated zones in Zhengzhou.