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A man in China takes a shower while waiting for traffic and an e-commerce platform gives away 200 ‘space rose’. Photo: Handout

Quirky China: space roses sell out in a second, a man turns rain into a shower and a dog cleans a restaurant’s plates

  • A man in China has become a folk hero for ‘taking a shower’ during a traffic stop
  • Also, an e-commerce giant sells ‘space roses’ that are snapped up almost instantly
This week in China, a man has gone viral for turning his motorbike into an ad hoc shower room, “space roses” fly off the shelves, and a woman is criticised for letting her dog lick the plate at a restaurant.

A shower … to go

A man in Nanjing, China, was caught on camera taking a shower while waiting at a red light during a rainstorm. Photo: Baidu
A motorcyclist in Nanjing, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, has become something of a folk hero after a video went viral of him washing his hair while topless at a red traffic light.

It was raining heavily at the time, and he seemed to have decided to turn the weather into a convenient shower, according to Jiangsu TV.

Unfortunately for the man, who was never identified, he also broke traffic regulations by not wearing a helmet while riding his bike. He was summoned to the police station on Friday afternoon and was admonished by officers.

He said he had been swimming in a lake near a mountain outside the city in the morning but had to stop because it was raining heavily. His frustration towards the rain intensified as he got wet while riding back into the city.

The man told the police: “While waiting for the traffic light, I thought, ‘Why not go for it?’”

One person on Weibo wrote, “What an interesting soul this is!”

A kiss from a space rose

A rose that is a descendant of seedlings that went to space is marketed online. Photo: Science and Technology Daily
Last Friday, a day before China’s traditional Valentine’s Day, 200 “space roses” were immediately snapped up on the e-commerce platform Taobao. Alibaba owns Taobao and the South China Morning Post .

The seeds were given out for free by the China Aerospace Construction Group to spread awareness about the space seeding project. They were only available for one second before being claimed.

The roses are the descendants of a batch of seeds that entered space in 2002 via the Shenzhou IV spacecraft.

After returning to the Earth, the seeds were screened and cultivated in various labs across the country. The roses sold on Taobao are the descendants from that original project.

The roses are meant to be held in a person’s palm, which is meant to symbolise “cherish”, and they were advertised as being able to bloom for a remarkably long time.

The roses were given away to celebrate Qixi, which fell on Saturday, and is the traditional Valentine’s Day in China.

The holiday celebrates the story of a pair of lovers named Niulang and Zhinu (a cow herder and a weaver), who were separated by the Milky Way and can only meet once a year on a bridge formed by magpies in the sky.

A puppy polish

A woman who let her corgi eat off a plate at a restaurant was criticised online. Photo: Sina

The Chinese internet is dragging a woman through the mud after she allowed her dog to lick a plate clean at a restaurant.

A short video published on Douyin, taken by the woman’s friend, showed her corgi licking the dish with the caption, “many people do not live as good of a life as this dog”.

Internet users criticised the dog owner, saying her actions were unhygienic.

“It’s OK to bring dogs into the restaurant, but you should discipline your dog,” wrote one user at news portal Sina.com.cn.

Another person said: “I don’t support letting dogs come into the restaurant at all. The owners should consider other customers’ feelings.”

The restaurant manager said the establishment usually bans dogs, but the staff had not noticed it because it was during peak hours, according to The Paper.

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