Trending in Beijing: A Life-Changing Moment for College Graduates, a Subway Spat, and Public Toileting
The fun, the strange, and the what-on-earth-is-this: a wrap-up of top stories in Beijing as told by the trending hashtags, local press, and general power of the internet.
1) Post-Graduation Entrance Exam Scores Announced
A boring but important piece of news to kick us off in the world of Weibo, today marks the day that university students who have applied for post-graduate study receive their entrance exam results. The topic, hashtagged “考研成绩” (scores of the entrance exam for post-graduation), sits firmly at the top of the trending charts with a robust 770 million clicks, and countless posts from Weibo users expressing their hopes for nabbing a position at their prized school.
With an increasingly intense job market, more and more students in China are choosing to continue education after graduation from college in the hope of reaping the advantages of a higher academic diploma. Over 2.9 million students took the exam this year, a nearly 22 percent increase compared to last, according to a recent report (in Chinese).
2) Xiaoxianrou Alert
Sticking with exams, the annual entrance exam for the esteemed Central Academy of Drama (CAD) kicked off on Feb 12, which means the paparazzi were out in force to catch a potential glimpse of next Luhan, Kris Wu, or any one of the TF Boys AKA abominable xiaoxianrou (the popular internet slang for good-looking young people). As one of the two top-performing art colleges in Beijing, CAD is a hotbed for celebrities in the entertainment industry. As such, the annual art exam usually comes as a one big photo-op that causes a frenzy on Weibo, with netizens e-feasting on young flesh and predicting which of the pretty faces may soon be famous.
3) An E-Cig Subway Spat
Never a boring day on Beijing Subway, and this morning was no different when a girl armed with an e-cigarette on Line 10 decided to have a spat with a security guy after she refused to stop smoking on account of it not being a real tab. Online, there was a lot of eye rolling and wary discussion given that this is certainly not the first time someone has been called out for blatantly smoking an e-cigarette on the subway.
However, the ban is indeed a gray area according to staff on Beijing subway since there’s no specific mention of e-cigarettes in the government's latest regulations to curb public smoking.
4) Snowfall in Beijing
Social media posts tagged as “Beijing turned to Peiping” (the former name of Beijing) flooded our WeChat and Weibo feeds earlier this week when the capital was blanketed in white for the first time this year after a relatively warm winter. The Forbidden City featured as the biggest camera hogger, unsurprisingly. See a bunch more snowy pics from this week here.
5) Public Toileting at the Forbidden City
Finally, while most people were excited to capture the Forbidden City in all its snowy glory, one young mom preferred to help their offspring piss all over it. The incident was caught by nearby onlookers and was made more egregious by the fact that they tossed their toilet paper on the ground afterward. One member of staff begrudgingly pointed out that there are 14 public toilets in the palace as well as a number of temporary bathrooms during peak visiting times.
More stories by this author here.
Email: kuang@thebeijinger.com
Instagram：beijinglights_
Photos: www.businessinsider.com.au, Weibo, news.china
