Shared bikes are so popular, they've squeezed humans out of this park
Bicycles have pretty much outnumbered humans in this park in Shenzhen, China.
These pictures emerged after a four-day long weekend in China for the Qing Ming festival.
Shared bikes were a great option to see the sights around Shenzhen, costing just 0.5 to 1 yuan ($0.07-$0.15) every half hour.
The shared bikes were so popular with visitors at Shenzhen Bay Park, that nearly two-thirds of the park's boardwalk was clogged with bicycles:
Park managers said that over 300,000 people had visited the park on Apr. 3 alone, and they rode in on over 10,000 bicycles, according to China's state-run news website The Paper.
The city then asked shared bike providers -- including Mobike, ofo, Bluegogo and two other companies -- to send staff to remove the bicycles overnight. It then banned bikes from entering the park the next day.
Mobike users received a popup asking them not to bring the bikes to Shenzhen Bay Park on their app, while Bluegogo issued a statement on its Weibo account asking users to explore other areas, instead of heading to the park.
"You can park our bikes in an orderly fashion near the entrance of the park, as guided by Bluegogo staff," the company said in its statement. "Instead of squeezing with everyone with your bike, why not take a walk, or go somewhere else and explore?"
Weibo users offered mixed reactions to the news:
BruceTed says: "I feel that there's too many shared bikes -- is it that these companies have too much capital, or are they just dumping bikes? This is nonsense."
FengDad: "Seriously. Bikes are a convenience, but also a problem. So many people just ride in the middle of the road, as though they're not afraid of cars and trucks; other bikes are broken, and kids are even riding them -- it's so dangerous."
While MountainKingsFirstBurn lamented: "You guys always ban what's popular. I don't see you banning hatchbacks during traffic jams."
WhaHahaAhKeKeDa apologised: "Really sorry 😂 I was part of the massive army of bikes yesterday. 😂 "
One of China's biggest bike-sharing firms, Ofo, told Mashable in a previous interview that in many cities, it planned to continually roll out more bikes, with the aim of making their yellow bikes a commonly-seen commodity. We're just not sure this strategy, taken to the extreme, is best.
I am an intern with Mashable Asia, focusing on viral news, lifestyle news and feature news in the region.
