Viral stories that took social media by storm in 2015 from the South China Morning Post

As temperatures drop and Christmas decorations adorn the hallways of shopping malls, we take a moment to reflect on the biggest stories of 2015 on our social media platforms. Ranked below are our most viewed stories from Facebook and Twitter.

1. Dog meat vendor dies after hitting himself with poisoned dart

The Chinese city of Yulin in Guangxi province begins to trend on social media every June as it prepares for its annual dog meat festival, which is held on the 21st of the month. Over 10,000 dogs are killed each year to be eaten at the festival.

In 2013, one dog meat vendor accidentally shot and killed himself with a poisoned dart fired from a crossbow usually used to kill dogs, mainland media reported. This story originally went viral in 2013 and took off again this year when the SCMP revisited it and highlighted it online.