The fun, the strange, and the what-on-earth-is-this: Trending in Beijing is a wrap-up of top stories in Beijing as told by the trending hashtags, local press, and general power of the internet.

Bottle cap challenge takes over Weibo

The Chinese internet, much like the rest of the world's internet, has been overrun by videos of people kicking lids off of bottles, otherwise known as "the bottle cap challenge." Unlike the other ongoing challenge du jour (at least in the US) of opening cartons and licking yet-to-be-sold ice cream before putting it back in the freezer, this challenge is not exclusively practiced by morons.

Currently, the hottest bottle cap challenge video on Weibo is by a Mando-pop singer Han Geng (韩庚) who knocks off a cap just by blowing on it. Talk about soft power. That particular video has gathered more than 4 million views in just two days.

Weibo users have not limited themselves to plastic water bottles, however, bestowing the bottle cap treatment on energy drinks, thermoses, and baijiu bottles. Besides the many impressive videos of successful attempts, there are plenty of blooper compilations and explanations of behind the scenes trickery, shedding light on how some are getting seemingly fantastic results by bending the rules. You can follow all the limber fun under #瓶盖挑战# (Bottle cap challenge).



Stakes are raised for Forbidden City restoration staff

Working in the Forbidden City's restoration department just got a whole lot harder. Following the success of the three-part docuseries Masters In the Forbidden City (我在故宫修文物), which has so far been watched by almost 5 million online viewers, the Palace Museum has been getting increasingly more applicants interested in doing the jobs depicted on screen. According to a speech given on Jul 10 by Shan Xiang, a representative of the Palace Museum, more than 40,000 people had recently applied for a single job in the restoration department. The interest has now driven the competition so high that those that want to help fix up one Beijing's most famous cultural sights are now required to have a master's or Ph.D. from an esteemed Chinese university to even get a sniff of a reply.

The very descriptive hashtag #名牌大学硕士以上才有机会修故宫# (Master's degree or higher from a well-known university required to repair the Forbidden City) currently has over 310 million readers.



Tiny apartment in competitive Beijing school district sells for RMB 3.6 million

Finally, a Xicheng district apartment with no kitchen or even running water has been sold for a cool RMB 3.6 million, triggering a barrage of heated discussions online. The apartment is located in a highly desirable school district and property ownership gives the owner's children priority entrance to schools in the vicinity. The western Beijing district in question has eight schools within its catchment area.

Discussion largely centers around the unrealistic prices of real estate in school districts, the fierce standards of competition for children to attend prestigious schools in the city, and the wealthy families who can afford to buy such properties and with it, a place in a school.

It perhaps goes without saying, but such "storage room" apartments generally do not end up actually being inhabited and are only used for their address. Netizens continue to discuss the real estate and school catchment controversy under the hashtag #北京12平学区房卖360万# (Beijing 12sqm flat in a school district sells for RMB 3.6 million).

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Images: Weibo