Screenshot from @QGHDZ’s YouTube Channel. The photoshopped slogan at the back says: Go eat the baozi!

Chinese authorities in Henan imposed campus lockdowns in several universities after tens of thousands of students set off on a nighttime bike ride from Zhengzhou, the capital city of the province, to Kaifeng, a tourist city.

The trend of night bike rides began on June 18, when four young women took off for a 50-kilometre bike ride at 7 pm from Zhengzhou and arrived around midnight at the ancient city of Kaifeng, just to taste its famous soup dumplings (Guantang bao). As their expedition went viral online, students across Zhengzhou joined in and organised their own nighttime bike rides for Kaifeng’s baozi.

At first, Kaifeng City officials welcomed the students, thinking their photos on social media might attract tourists to the ancient Chinese city. To hype up the trend, the city authorities waived students’ ticket fees for major tourist sites and sent police officers to ensure road safety at night. Three major bicycle-sharing platform operators also enabled their bikes for cross-city trips. State-owned media, such as China Daily, even praised the night riders for their sense of adventure. Here is the Chinese government-funded CGTN’s report on the night ride on X:

Night cycling in China went viral across the country after four female university students from Zhengzhou biked 50km to Kaifeng for some dumplings. Find out more. pic.twitter.com/DEuIGxOeia

— CGTN America (@cgtnamerica) November 11, 2024

The state's U-turn

After weeks of bike rides, the trend turned sour last weekend as young people from other regions and cities travelled to Zhengzhou to join a mass night ride to Kaifeng on November 8.

During the 5-hour trip, most bikers were singing patriotic songs and slogans. But occasionally, politically sensitive phrases which are highly censored by the Chinese state popped up, as highlighted by Teacher Li, an overseas Chinese dissident and social media influencer:

11月8日晚，郑州骑行至开封的学生们，一名学生高喊“共产党万岁！
另一名学生挥舞印有“自由我踏妈来啦”字样的旗帜，结果第二天河南多所高校封校。 pic.twitter.com/HHrxHzoXHM

— 李老师不是你老师 (@whyyoutouzhele) November 9, 2024

At night, on November 8, among students riding from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng, one shouted, “Long Live the Communist Party!” Another student carried a flag with the slogan, “I am riding towards freedom”. But then, several colleges in Henan were locked down the next day. 

It is estimated that over 200,000 people joined the night ride on November 8th, flooding the highways and the ancient city with bikes. On November 9th, police blocked bicycles from entering the highways between Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, citing road safety concerns. The US government-funded Radio Free Asia collected video footage from mainland Chinese social media and reported on the clampdown:

【夜骑开封第二高潮：警方封路, 骑手徒步行走】
河南自行车队伍11月9日凌晨再出发，形成 #夜骑开封 以来第二个高潮。充斥着共享单车的车队长达数十公里，引发当局关注。#郑开大道 郑州段对非机动车道施行禁行。夜骑至开封的学生将大量单车遗弃在开封大梁门，不少人出行受阻。 pic.twitter.com/9H6A5BvGzO

— 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) November 10, 2024

[The second mass night ride to Kaifeng: Police blocked the roads, and riders walk on foot]
Riders from Henan set off again in the early hours of November 9th, embarking on the second mass #NightRidetoKaifeng. Bikes from ride sharing platforms occupied the road for dozens of kilometres, and the authorities were alerted. Non-motorized vehicles were banned from entering the Zhengzhou section of #ZhengkaiAvenue. A large number of bikes were left behind outside the Da Liang Gate of Kaifeng City by the student riders. Traffic was blocked.  

In addition to traffic control, major bicycle-sharing platforms re-imposed restrictions on their bikes, forbidding riders from taking them outside designated zones, and various sources from Chinese social media indicated that many colleges and universities in Henan Province had locked their campus to prevent students from joining the night rides. 

There was much discussion and speculation on Chinese social media about the officials’ sudden U-turn.

The official explanation is that Kaifeng City does not have enough capacity to host so many bikers and that the arrival of tens of thousands of bikes has paralysed the road traffic.

According to Teacher Li, many bikers found this unfair. One biker who had taken part in the cross-city bike ride noted that the crowds were caused by Kaifeng City’s choice to offer free tickets to their tourist sites to boost their own reputation. He argued that the students did not cause the traffic congestion and had no political agenda as they undertook the bike ride in order to participate in a group activity. Teacher Li added:

這次事件反映的第一件事，我覺得是現在年輕人是渴望參與公共活動的。這種自發性的大規模群眾聚集活動在中國是極為罕見的，僅僅用跟風來解釋這件事是不足以說服人的，人民群眾能有那麼大的熱情，我覺得最大的原因是，這種活動能給大家帶來某種感動，這種感動可能就是國內缺少的公共事件、公共活動的參與。

Firstly, this incident reflects young people's yearning to participate in public activities. This kind of spontaneous large-scale crowd-gathering activity in China is extremely rare, and to write the the incident off as ‘trendy phenomena’ is not convincing enough. The reason behind people’s enthusiasm is that this kind of activity triggers a certain emotion [which is missing], because in mainland China, we rarely have the opportunity to participate in civil and public activities.  

However, despite students’ intentions, the state soon perceived the cycling collective as a threat. On November 9th, many universities and colleges in Henan issued lockdown notices. To prevent students from participating in the night ride to Kaifeng, some schools demanded students obtain a special permit to leave the campus. A few lockdown notices circulated online also indicated that the decision came from the provincial government or above, with strong wordings that suggested the incident may be affecting social stability. 

So what are the authorities so worried about? Dialogue China, an online analysis publication, pointed to the soaring youth unemployment problem:

近日，郑州大学生发起大规模“夜骑”至开封，11月8日达到高潮，车队长达数十公里，塞满共享单车。这种“特种兵旅游”引发当局高度关注，并警告境外势力风险。此举引发网友调侃：十年郑开同城化不如学生一夜骑行。此事件背景是青年失业率飙升，2024年毕业生1179万，实际青年失业率或高达46.5%。 pic.twitter.com/fegwOLdpT0

— 对话中国 Dialogue China (@dialogue_china) November 9, 2024

Recently, college students in Zhengzhou launched a massive ‘night ride’ to Kaifeng. The turnout reached its climax on November 8. The bike fleet was dozens of kilometres long, [the whole highway] was filled with shared bicycles. This kind of ‘special tourist troop’ concerned the authorities, who warned of the risk of foreign interference. Netizens joked that the decades-long plan to merge Zhengzhou and Kaifeng was eventually accomplished by student bike riders. The context of this incident concerns the soaring youth unemployment problem. With 11.79 million college students graduating in 2024, youth unemployment could be as high as 46.5 percent [an estimation from 2023].

Political speculation

As the students’ actions began to draw global attention, overseas dissidents started drawing political associations around the incident.

Some argued that Kaifeng (開封) in Chinese means open or unseal and that riding to Kaifeng symbolizes marching to openness. Some also speculated that the authorities’ suppression was triggered by the sensitive word “baozi”, which is a nickname for Xi Jinping.

Regardless of the reason, the Chinese authorities’ panic has prompted some good laughs on overseas Chinese social media. @QGHDZ’s song went viral on YouTube and X:

The lyrics are full of irony:

黨啊！親愛的媽媽 / 您不要慌不要怕 / 我們沒有說您的懷話 / 更不敢把您罵 / 我們只是到開封吃吃包子 / 同學們一起說說話 / 這個國家您是老大 / 14億人只聽您的話 / 我們敬愛的習大大 / 多次為包子站台和講話 / 雖沒北京、天津的包子名氣大 / 我們開封的包子味道也不差

Party [CCP]! Dear Mo. Don't panic. Don't be afraid. We didn't speak ill of you. We didn't dare to criticize you. We just went to Kaifeng to eat steamed buns. To talk with our classmates. You are the leader of this country. 1.4 billion people only listen to you. Our beloved Xi the Greatness. Has stood up and spoken for buns many times. Though they're not as famous as those from Beijing and Tianjin. The flavor of our Kaifeng buns is not bad, either.