Tens of thousands of Chinese college students went cycling at night. That put the government on edge

They arrived in huge numbers on shared bikes after pedaling 30 miles in the evening chill, pumped by the adrenaline of youth and the thrill of embarking on a spontaneous adventure with friends.

Nighttime bike rides to Kaifeng, an ancient city in central China’s Henan province known for its historic sites and soup dumplings, have been all the rage among college students in the nearby provincial capital Zhengzhou – a trend initially encouraged by the government as it sought to promote local tourism.

But now, officials are scrambling to curb the craze by deploying police and closing bike lanes after its popularity appears to have gotten out of hand. Tens of thousands of cyclists brought intercity traffic to a standstill, while piles of discarded bikes overwhelmed the streets of Kaifeng, leaving commuters in Zhengzhou struggling to find bikes to ride home.

Authorities cited traffic disruptions and safety concerns for the clampdown on the impromptu gathering.

But the scenes of hordes of university students mobilizing, organizing and congregating in public are likely to have rattled local officials given the ruling Communist Party’s history with youth movements in China and its obsession with stability.

On Friday night, Zhengkai Avenue, a main road connecting the two cities, was crammed by an endless flow of young cyclists as police tried to maintain order; at some sections, the riders completely took over the five car lanes, according to videos circulating on Chinese social media.

Over the weekend, authorities in Kaifeng and Zhengzhou closed off bike lanes on Zhengkai Avenue, to try to stop cyclists from entering.

Meanwhile, three bike-sharing platforms in Zhengzhou issued a joint statement, warning that their bikes will be locked down automatically if ridden out of the city.

To prevent students from joining the cycling crowd, some colleges and universities in Zhengzhou even imposed restrictions on leaving campus, according to accounts shared by students on social media.

Spontaneous youth gatherings, political or otherwise, have long been treated with deep suspicion by Chinese authorities.

In the spring of 1989, university students in Beijing rode their bikes to Tiananmen Square to join pro-democracy protests that ended in a bloody crackdown by the Chinese military. It remains one of China’s most sensitive political taboos to this day, so much so that most of what happened is heavily censored inside the country.

And in late 2022, it was mostly young people who took to the streets in major Chinese cities or gathered on university campuses to protest leader Xi Jinping’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions in one of the most extraordinary challenges to the Communist Party’s rule in decades.

The bike rides to Kaifeng, however, didn’t seem designed to deliver a political message.

While some student cyclists carried Chinese flags, sang the national anthem and shouted slogans in support of the Communist Party – one even waved a banner demanding unification with Taiwan – most appeared to have just joined the ride for fun.

But as the night rides exploded in scale and started to spread to other cities, local officials stepped in.

The emergency measures mark an abrupt U-turn from the government. Previously, authorities rushed to promote the trend, which started in June when four female university students in Zhengzhou made an impulsive trip to Kaifeng on share bikes to satisfy their late-night craving for soup dumplings.

Their journey quickly went viral, inspiring more Zhengzhou students to follow suit as the hashtag “youth is priceless” trended on social media.

“Riding a shared bike from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng for breakfast. Youth is meant for enjoying, going wild and having endless energy,” a student rider wrote on Douyin, TikTok’s sister app in China, in a post that garnered nearly 250,000 likes.

Eager to attract more tourists and cash in on its newfound internet fame, Kaifeng went out of its way to welcome the students, including offering free entry to tourist sites.

State media also chimed in to cheer the students’ journey as showing the “passion of youth.”

“What began as a spontaneous trip for dumplings has turned into a symbol of youthful energy and the joy of shared experiences, making the early-morning streets of Henan come alive in a new and unexpected way,” said a report carried on the English website of the People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party.

“I met so many people just like me along the way – some carrying flags, others with music playing, and even some singing together,” a student from Henan University told the People’s Daily. “When we hit an uphill climb, everyone cheered each other on. We didn’t know each other, but we felt like comrades.”

The craze – and the ensuing crackdown – has divided opinion on the Chinese internet.

Some blamed the students for overwhelming Kaifeng and causing trouble to residents. Others said local authorities should have been better prepared for the influx of students before they jumped in to promote the trend.

“The local tourism bureau wants to cash in on the trend but isn’t prepared with necessary measures,” said a comment on microblogging site Weibo.

But seeking fun or chasing discounts were not the only motivations for making the hourslong journey. For some students, it also provided a rare escape from their anxiety about the grim job market and uncertain future amid a slowing economy.

A final year university student in Zhengzhou told the state-run West China City Daily that she was so busy with job hunting that she felt trapped in a “bottomless pit.”

She went for a night ride to Kaifeng with a friend on November 3, after reading about the trend on social media.

“Night cycling feels like an adventure,” she told the newspaper, adding that all her anxiety and worries melted away as she listened to music and chatted with her friend during the journey.

“In that moment, I wished I could just keep riding and never return to reality.”