An increasing number of young adults in China is opting to live in hotels full-time because it is more cost-effective and more convenient than renting or buying a home.

Last year, we wrote about a family of eight living full-time in a luxury hotel in Nanyang, China’s Henan Province. Their story made international news headlines at the time, but it was anything but unique. In reality, a growing number of people are negotiating long-term stays in hotels all across the country because it is not only cheaper than renting or buying a home, but it beats having to deal with landlords, signing dodgy contracts, and even having to pay utilities or do any kind of cleaning. The biggest drawbacks are not being able to redecorate or cook, but for many young adults in China, those are not deal-breakers at all.

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A Chinese man who had developed a habit of smelling his dirty socks after wearing them for a whole day has been diagnosed with fungal lung infection.

A middle-aged office worker from Chonqing, whose name was not revealed by the media, was recently admitted to the Southwest Hospital of the Army Medical University with a persistent cough. The man told doctors that his cough had worsened in recent days despite taking cough syrup and that his eyes had become bloodshot, which prompted him to seek medical assistance. After conducting CT and MRI examinations, doctors found suspicious shadows in his lower right lung, and a subsequent bronchoscopy showed that the patient suffered from a fungal lung disease caused by an Aspergillus infection. Upon questioning him about the possible causes of the infection, the doctors learned that the man had developed a habit of smelling his own dirty socks.

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A mountain resort in Jianxi, China, has invested millions of dollars into a massive network of giant escalators to allow people to reach its mountain peaks effortlessly.

The pain and effort of reaching the top of a mountain used to be part of the whole hiking experience, but at the Lingshan Scenic Area in Eastern China’s Jianxi Province, one will soon be able to reach a 1,500-meter-high summit simply by riding on a bunch of outdoor escalators. Aimed at allowing anyone to reach the popular mountaintop and take in the beauty of the surrounding area, this massive project was kickstarted in 2022 and is scheduled for completion next month. Recent photos and videos shot on location show dozens of interlinked escalators from the foot of the mountain all the way to the top. Although this isn’t China’s only mountain escalator installation, it is considered one of the largest and most complex.

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A 26-year-old Chinese programmer who got a vigorous neck massage to relieve pain narrowly avoided permanent paralysis after suffering a stroke.

Xiao Zhang (pseudonym), a young IT professional from Changsha, China’s Hunan Province, often suffered from neck pain due to spending many hours at his desk. After learning that traditional massage could help relieve neck pain, he decided to try it out at a local massage parlor. Everything was going great until he felt a sharp pain in his neck during a more vigorous maneuver by the massage therapist, which was shortly followed by a strong headache. He didn’t think too much of these symptoms, but the very next morning, he woke up with numbness and weakness of the left side of his body, as well as slurred speech. Scared, the 26-year-old rushed to the Second People’s Hospital of Hunan Province, where he was diagnosed with a secondary cerebral infarction.

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A Chinese man has already been evicted from rented apartments twice this year because of his unusual pet – a gentle black buffalo calf.

Mr. Chen, a 30-year-old retired boxer who currently works as a part-time fitness and boxing coach from Foshan, China’s Guangdong Province, has become an overnight celebrity because of his unusual house pet. Back in January, Chen bought himself a buffalo calf as a pet. He had planned on getting a dog, but the more he thought about it, the more the buffalo calf made sense. He claims the animal is a constant reminder that he should work hard to reach his life goals, but at the same time, he should take caution not to become a workhorse. To each their own, we say, but Chen’s unusual choice for a pet has landed him in hot water with at least two landlords, but he refuses to give up on ‘Bull Demon King’ and is currently looking for another place to rent.

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A Chinese barbecue restaurant has gone viral for selling bamboo skewers seasoned with a mix of spices, chili, and spring onions to people looking to enjoy the flavor of barbecue without the calories.

Last month, Chinese media reported the hottest late-night snack in Southern China, an unusual “dish” called Spicy Bamboo Skewers. Thought up by a barbecue restaurant owner in Shaoyang, Hunan Province, the unusual treat consists of bamboo skewers seasoned with a mix of spices, chili, and spring onions before being tossed on the barbecue to add a bit of smokiness to the mix. The wooden skewers are then sold in batches of 50 for just 10 yuan ($1.4), making them both affordable and delicious. Just in case you’re wondering, you don’t eat the bamboo skewers, instead you suck the flavor off of them as a guilt-free snack.

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A young Chinese woman went viral on social media after showing off her unusual home – a 6-square-foot toilet at her workplace for which she pays just 50 yuan ($7).

Everyone tries to save money on rent, but how many of us would be willing to sleep in an actual toilet to do it? One young woman from Hunan, China, recently shocked the world after posting photos of her unconventional living quarters – a small, unused toilet located inside the furniture factory where she works. The 19-year-old woman explained that she comes from a poor family and couldn’t afford to pay upwards of 800 yuan ($110) for a proper home, so she asked her boss if she could live there instead. Her post went viral, but most people commented that she was only sharing photos and videos to attract attention because no one could live in such conditions. However, the woman’s boss took to social media to confirm that she was indeed sleeping in a 6-square-foot toilet at his factory.

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Doctors at a hospital in Jilin, China recently reported one of their most bizarre cases yet – a woman who had gotten her hand stuck in her boyfriend’s mouth while trying to film a funny video.

Clips and photos of a couple walking into the emergency room of a hospital in Jilin Province have been doing the rounds on Chinese social media. The premise doesn’t sound very intriguing but what really attracted people’s attention was that the woman had her hand in the man’s mouth. Apparently, they had tried to shoot a funny video to post online in which they tried to see if the woman’s hand was small enough to fit in her boyfriend’s mouth. She managed to stuff her fist in his mouth just fine, but when she tried to pull it out, his mouth muscles stiffened and the hand became stuck. After repeatedly trying to pull out her hand from the man’s mouth, the young woman decided that they needed medical attention.

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A journalistic investigation by the Chinese newspaper The Paper revealed the widespread commercialization of “fake meats”, such as fox or raccoon meat being sold as beef, mutton, or rabbit to restaurants.

The Paper reports that in Chinese areas known for fur production, such as Tangshan, Hebei, Weifang, Linyi, or Shandong, animal farms resell fox and raccoon ‘white strips’ (carcasses with the internal organs and subcutaneous fat removed) all over the country, passing them off as beef, mutton or rabbit. Some vendors even go through the trouble of braising and grilling their fake meats before freezing them and selling them to restaurants to make them even harder to tell apart from meats meant for human consumption. Experts warn that the hormones and medicines used in the breeding of animals for fur, but also the pathogens they carry make these meats extremely dangerous.

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Chinese people desperate to get rich by any means necessary are putting their faith in bags of “bank soil” sold online as wealth-bringing talismans.

Bank robberies usually involve cold harsh cash or gold ingots, but several Chinese banks have recently become the target of an unusual type of theft, that of soil from potted plants or from around the buildings housing them. Several online shops in the Asian country are selling small bags of ‘bank’ soil as get-rich-quick talismans that can cost as much as 888 yuan ($120), and demand for the unusual products is steadily increasing. Some sellers boast a “999.999 percent success rate in generating wealth,” while others record the harvesting process to guarantee the authenticity of their bank soil.

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A Chinese man reportedly needed emergency surgery after rupturing his facial artery by incessantly picking his nose.

The man’s bizarre case was shared online by his wife in the form of a short clip documenting his experience in the hope that it may dissuade other avid nose-pickers from indulging in their favorite pastime too much. Hailing from Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, the unnamed man had reportedly always loved picking his hose. Whether he was standing, sitting down, or lying in bed, he would always be exploring his nostrils with a finger. Only recently, his obsession with nose-picking came back to bite him. One day, while picking his nose as usual, the man triggered a serious nosebleed that simply couldn’t be stopped, despite his and his wife’s best efforts.

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A video that has been doing the rounds on Chinese social media appears to show a humanoid robot malfunctioning and erratically “attacking” the crowd at a festival in Tianjin.

The footage, shot during the Tianjin Winter Gala Festival on February 9th, shows one of several Unitree H1 humanoid robots seemingly attacking a spectator who had extended their hand out for a handshake. Instead of responding to the gesture, the robot displays erratic arm movements and aggressively rushes toward the crowd before being pulled back by security guards and what looks to be a robot supervisor. The H1 robot appears to calm down before the video cuts off, but its violent outburst has raised concerns about the use of these autonomous machines around humans.

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Doctors in Henan, China, were shocked by the case of a middle-aged man who suffered a pneumothorax after mild physical exercise – 20 pushups and a few minutes of skipping rope.

The unnamed man told physicians that he had decided to get in shape as part of a New Year’s resolution, but things didn’t really play out like he imagined. Last month, he started doing pushups and skipping rope as a way of losing weight, but he only managed to do two sets of pushups and skip ropes for a few minutes when he started feeling bad. He stopped and went about his day, but when he woke up the next day, he started experiencing severe chest pain and difficulty breathing, especially after minimal physical effort, like climbing stairs. At one point, the pain got so bad that he went to the hospital where doctors diagnosed him with pneumothorax.

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A young Chinese doctor has gone viral for his rapid weight loss, shedding 25 kilograms (55 pounds) in just 42 days and then entering and winning a professional bodybuilding contest.

At the end of 2024, Wu Tian Gen, a 31-year-old surgeon at Hubei’s Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, weighed 97.5 kg (215 lbs), the heaviest he had ever been, but by the end of January 2025, the 1.82m tall doctor had shed over 42 kilograms and was in such an amazing physical condition that he won a bodybuilding competition. How did he do it? Well, he didn’t share every detail, but it was a combination of personal ambition, physical training, and a carefully thought-out diet. Even so, losing so much weight in 42 days is nothing short of impressive.

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A Chinese woman subjected her fiancee to simulated childbirth pain for three hours as a sick pre-marriage test that caused the man to develop intestine necrosis and undergo emergency surgery.

It’s not uncommon for people to test their partners in various ways to see if they are right for each other, but some people take it a bit to far. Case in point, one young woman from Henan Province, China, who reportedly subjected her fiancee to three hours of electric shocks to the stomach as a twisted way of simulating the pain of childbirth. It’s unclear why the man accepted the test, or of he had any idea what he was getting into, but he clearly didn’t expect to develop intestine necrosis and have to get emergency surgery because of it. The horrific experience convinced him to not only break off the engagement but also sue the woman he was going tot marry for damages.

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