Trending in Beijing: UFO Cloud Sighting, Fun in the Snow, and the Hottest Spring Festival Routes
The fun, the strange, and the what-on-earth-is-this? Trending in Beijing is a wrap-up of top stories in Beijing as told by the trending hashtags, local press, and general power of the internet.
A cloud covers the Chinese Internet
Technically, storage clouds have been dominating the Internet for a while now, but on Wednesday, a RL cloud was the #1 trending topic in Beijing, with over 10 of the top hashtags dedicated to the mass of condensed water vapor. And what an attractive cloud it was! Users quickly commented on how it resembled a UFO, or umm, a pink heart. Yeah, we're not seeing it either. Speaking of not seeing things, we couldn't help but notice that the cloud's appearance online and heavy reportage by almost every official news outlet coincided with news of a certain president's impeachment, giving a very digital meaning to cloud cover.
Meanwhile, netizens went merrily on their way interpreting the cloud as an auspicious sign for prosperity and peace in 2020 (*yawn*), or treated like a floating wishing well, using the opportunity to tell everybody their dreams for the upcoming year.
You can join in guessing the meaning of the cloud (spoiler alert: there isn't any, it's a cloud) under #北京飞碟云# (Beijing flying saucer cloud), which is just one of the many fluffy hashtags, with more than 67 million readers.
Snow brings out the best in everyone
What's that? More positive, weather-related news? It must be a Christmas miracle!
One heartwarming story that's been doing the rounds recently is the tale of a businessman who visited the capital from Guangzhou for business on Dec 16. Upon arrival, the businessman was so stunned by the amount of snow that he had to share his wonderment with his daughter back home, packing a cooler box full of the good stuff and sending it back to Guangzhou. The kuaidi 小哥 charged with the strange mission was reportedly pretty confused but added that it was the most special package he had ever carried. Besides swooning over the cute gesture, more importantly, netizens were wondering whether his daughter actually received snow or just sludgy water.
Another trending snow story came via Tsinghua University, where creative students went above and beyond their extracurricular duties, creating some amazing snow sculptures – including an homage to the Venus de Milo (pictured below). Do Tsinghua grads have to be the best at everything?
Others opted to create snowy renditions of an Easter Island head (moia), a frosty Gundam, a smiling Totoro, and a helpfully labeled 'Giant Female Goose.' Check them all out, and more, in this video. Meanwhile, some of the more bitter netizens (AKA lemon spirits) are being spoil-sports, pointing out the obvious: "What's the point, it will melt soon anyway."
You can admire the sculpting skills under #清华美院男生堆冰雪维纳斯# (A student of Tsinghua fine arts faculty makes an ice Venus), which already has over 230 million readers.
Beijing-Sanya is the hottest route for the Spring Festival
Looking to score a beach holiday to escape the bone-creaking cold of January in Beijing? We'd recommend avoiding Sanya this year. As reported by CCTV Finance and Economics desk, the Beijing-Sanya flight route is currently trending as China's most popular Spring Festival migration route.
Spring Festival always yields plenty of mind-boggling stats about our spending, travel, and migration patterns, and this year is no different. Already the data is flowing in, showing that Shanghai is the busiest departure city in China, a reflection of its higher population density, with Harbin, Kunming, and Guangzhou as the most popular destinations among the city's urbanites.
This year, Yunnan, Guangdong, and Hainan provinces will boast the highest concentration of incoming travelers, so plan accordingly! Netizens are following the holiday migration forecasting under #北京至三亚成春运最热门航线# (Beijing-Sanya is the hottest flight route for Spring festival migration).
READ: The Travel Destinations That Got Us Hooked in 2019
Images: Weibo
