Naked cyclists warned to cover up or face jail

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Shanghai Daily, June 27, 2011
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Qu Zhihang, who rode his bicycles naked next to the Pearl River.

Qu Zhihang, who rode his bicycles naked next to the Pearl River.

University students planning to ditch their clothes for a good cause in Guangzhou were warned by police to cover up or face jail.

Despite the warning, a batch of 50-plus male students improvised and rode their bicycles half-naked around the Guangzhou University Town for 30 minutes starting at 8pm on Saturday, attracting crowds of students in the Guangdong Province capital, said the Southern Metropolis Daily yesterday.

According to the newspaper, the campaign was started by an 18-year-old from Anhui Province, nicknamed "Wild Donkey." The teenager was called by police at least four times for "conversations" before he finally announced his decision to quit holding the event on Friday night due to "personal reasons."

As a cycling fan and an employee at a campus bicycle shop, the teenager got the idea from the annual World Naked Bike Ride Day, which promotes environmental protection and the usage of bicycle transport in protest against oil dependency.

The teenager published his intention of holding Guangzhou's first campus naked bike ride on the Internet last week and in one day over 50 students, both males and females, applied to participate in the campaign.

But the online posts have also stirred controversy. Some netizens have supported the university students' bid to carry out an "environment protection campaign," while others have criticized them for damaging moral standards by appearing naked in public.

In response to the online controversy and the "conversations" with police, the teenager altered the campaign's rules from riding totally naked to riding half-naked.

He requested that men wear pants or underwear while he advised the women to wear bikinis or swimming suits.

According to participants, the man was last called by police at noon on Friday and had a four-hour long conversation at the police station.

A police officer told the newspaper that under the law a person who exposes his or her naked body in public will be detained for 5 to 10 days.

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