Bicycles seized the road in the middle of the night..."No going out for college students".

College Student Bike Procession Participating in 'Night Riding' / Hong Kong Sungdo Daily Capture

Authorities took emergency action after a procession of hundreds of thousands of bicycles occupied the road as "night biking" became popular among Chinese university students.

According to local media such as Hong Kong's Sungdo Daily on the 10th, university students in Henan Province, China, filled a 50-kilometer boulevard connecting Zhengzhou and Kaifeng on the night of the 8th.

Taiwan's Central News Agency said on the night of the 8th that the bicycle procession was larger than the blank movement in which Chinese university students protested the authorities' "zero-COVID" policy in 2022.

There were no slogans or actions against the Chinese government or the Communist Party in the bike parade.

As crowds gathered, local authorities closed roads and universities took emergency measures, including banning students from going out.

A university in Henan Province issued an emergency notice to its students, stating that "the education office and school held an emergency night riding countermeasure meeting," and that "the number of people heading to Kaifeng has already exceeded 200,000." Regarding the ban, the university explained, "Students should understand that impure personnel and hostile forces from abroad can invade and attempt riots like Hong Kong in the past."

Road in Kaifeng, Henan Province, China, mixed with college students and vehicles who rode shared bicycles on the 8th / Weibo

Recently, a parade of bicycles filling roads in the middle of the night has been shared with photos and videos on Chinese social media.

The trend of night biking began in June when four female students cycled about 50km from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng to taste Kaifeng's Guantangpo (dumpling containing soup) in a short form (short video) and shared it on social media.

As the video became popular, the number of people imitating "night riding" increased, and recently, students from nearby areas as well as Henan Province have gathered, increasing to more than 10,000 a day.

Reporter Park Sun-young of Digital News Team