Chinese city 'creates special path lane for mobile users' (not really)
The story of how one Chinese city had created special lanes on pedestrian footpaths designated as 'mobile phone only' has been lighting up the internet today - but all is not as it seems.
According to multiple hastily-written reports, authorities in the sprawling south-eastern city of Chongqing had drawn white markings on a 50m stretch of pavement, with mobile phone users instructed to stick to a particular lane.
A blue sign at the beginning of the stretch reads "First mobile phone sidewalks in China", according to The Telegraph.
Naturally, images of the supposedly officially-sanctioned project were widely circulated on Twitter, as the idea of cordoning off a section of the footpath for people permanently glued to their mobile screens admittedly has some appeal.
Walking while texting? Chinese City launches lane for mobile addicts http://t.co/EGce3ajNrk pic.twitter.com/GKExf86Bl9
— John Crowley (@mrjohncrowley) September 15, 2014
Chinese city opens 'phone lane' for texting pedestrians http://t.co/E2K0NBQDpG pic.twitter.com/TNINbl095J
— The Guardian (@guardian) September 15, 2014
However what escaped wider notice amid all the eye-rolling is the fact that the stretch of pavement in question is located in a place called 'Yangren Jie' (洋人街) - a kitschy, 3.5-square-kilometre theme park known in English as 'Foreigner Street'.
The park features "recreations of international landmarks including a miniature New York, Venetian canals, a 10-metre Christ the Redeemer, a 150-metre-long Great Wall of China and, from Thailand, an exotic dance show", according to a 2012 report from CNN.
"Yangren Jie is also known for hosting the largest public bathroom in the world, which checks in at 40,000 square metres."
So the whole 'mobile lane' thing is exactly what it first appears - a joke.
What's more, it also appears to be a joke lifted wholesale from a stunt already pulled in Washington D.C earlier this year, as part of filming for a new National Geographic TV show on behavioural science.
The yet-to-be-aired series, 'Mind Over Masses' explores ways to make people change behaviour.
(For the record, only a small minority of pedestrians paid any attention to the on-street instructions in the Washington stunt).
"The Chongqing signs use almost identical language and even the same Nokia-esque cellphone icon as the ones in DC," reports Quartz.com in a post debunking the original story.
So there you have it - don't believe everything you see on the internet.
