Xiao Lu started running his family’s street food stall when he was 17. His father prepared the ingredients while he handled the cooking, but Lu quickly realized he needed something to set himself apart from the many other similar stalls in the market. One day, he put on a vest to add a touch of class to his attire, but the feedback was so positive that he eventually ended up donning a full business suit.

Chinese media report that Xiao Lu starts work at his night market stall at 5 pm every day and cooks around 200 servings until around 11:30 at night. His family assists him by cutting the ingredients and preparing the different sauces and broths, but he definitely steals the show with his unusual attire and CEO-like demeanor.

Lu’s dapper look has attracted comparisons to Sanji, the stylish fictional cook in the Japanese anime One Piece, created by Eiichiro Oda. He became so popular after he started streaming his stir-fry routine on sites like Douyin (China’s version of TikTok) that people started traveling from all over the country just to see him in action.

“People may come to buy out of curiosity, but what really keeps customers coming back is the taste,” Lu said in a recent interview. “I’m just doing what I love. If it can bring some positive energy, I’m very happy.”

The young ‘Stir Fry CEO’ said that business has been so good since going viral online that he works virtually non-stop from 5 pm until 11:30 at night, preparing a portion about every three minutes and sometimes handling multiple woks at once to keep up with demand.

For more unusual street foods, check out China’s unique stir-fried river rocks, and grilled ice.

In a series of videos documenting the build of the world’s largest RC A380, Ramy RC revealed that the ever-growing weight of the aircraft was always the biggest issue. He managed to solve it by using a lot of light but strong materials, like carbon fibre with a honeycomb core, but it still took a lot of trial and error to make it work.

Interestingly, Ramy RC’s creation is long and wide enough to actually fit a person inside, horizontally, and is about the size of some Cesna light planes. Although specific flight speeds have not yet been revealed, the fact that this enormous RC model can actually take off and land like an actual jet (with servo-powered landing train and everything) is impressive enough.

Ramy RC spent months working on the world’s largest RC Airbus A380, making countless adjustments along the way, but the end result is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

According to Chinese media sources, Hou Xiang was born prematurely after his mother suffered from malnutrition during her pregnancy. He was always smaller than the other kids his age, but around the age of nine, his physical development stopped, and he was left looking like a young boy for the rest of his life.

For most of his adult life, Hou Xiang has been confused with a pre-teen and asked questions like ‘where do you study?,’ but he didn’t let that affect his ambition and his desire to make it in life. Supported by his family, he pursued acting and landed his breakout role in 2005, playing a primary school student in the hit sitcom Home with Kids. He was 19 at the time.

Over the years, Hou appeared in popular dramas including Stepfather, Chuang Guandong, and Tunnel Warfare, where he played a variety of youthful characters. Directors praised his acting skills and his capacity to follow instructions to the letter, something that kids can struggle with.

The 40-year-old actor admitted that his boyish appearance and child-like voice severely limit the kind of roles he can take on, but added that he always strives to perfect the roles offered to him.

“For me, it is not easy to come across a script and a role that I truly like,” Hou said. “I hope I can fully master every role within this range. That, too, counts as a kind of success for an actor.”

Hou has always lived a quiet, stable life with his wife, preferring to focus on his family and acting, instead of clinging to the spotlight and the attention that comes with it.

As a millennial, I still remember growing up in Eastern Europe during the final years of communism, before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Virtually the only thing we had for breakfast and as snacks were plain white bread sandwiches with baloney, butter or cheese. There just wasn’t anything else available. Many people from my generation still remember those simple but hearty meals fondly, but I never imagined a business model built around them.

Buterbrodik 66 (Russian for ‘Sandwich 66’) is a unique eatery in Sankt Petersburg, Russia, that only sells basic sandwiches with baloney, butter, cheese, or egg, for as little as 100 rubles ($1.36). There is nothing fancy about them; in fact, they look like they were made by some student in their dorm room, but that’s the appeal.

Owner Alexey Petrachev told PDM News that he and a friend started the business as a simple stand selling dirt-cheap sandwiches to cheer people up, but the whole thing evolved into something more, and now they have their own place. Like the sandwiches, it’s nothing fancy; it’s in a building no one else wants to operate in, on the outskirts of Sankt Petersburg, but it’s cheap, so they can stay in business.

“At first, the prices were 50 rubles—people would come in and say, ‘Oh, what a rip-off,’ and leave. Then we raised the price to 100 rubles—everyone immediately felt OK,” Petrachev said. “Considering our location—we’re on the outskirts, in a building and a place no one wants—we have enough to cover the cost of this space.”

A slab of butter between two slices of cheap, white bread might seem like a lot, but judging by the online reviews, a lot of people are more than willing to shell out 100 rubles for a sandwich, either out of melancholy or because they simply don’t want to do it themselves. After all, you need to buy a whole loaf of bread, a stick of butter, not to mention the time required to make the sandwich.

“Sin entered into the world through food, and Satan doesn’t stop there. Food, for me, is really like a weapon of how I can fight back,” 27-year-old biblical eating influencer Kayla Bundy recently told the New York Times, adding that she got into it after looking at the Holy Book from “that lens of noticing what they are eating”.

Bundy, who has been a biblical eater for the last eight years, is a popular content creator on platforms like TikTok, where she shares tips and recipes with over 500,000 followers. She also managed to turn her unique diet into a lucrative business, selling a $28 digital guide to biblical superfoods and booking coaching sessions for $700 per month.

Kayla Bundy may be one of the most popular promoters of biblical eating, but she is definitely not the only one. Abbie Stasior, a Christian dietitian who lives in Nashville, likes to reference Bible verses, such as a scene in the Book of John in which Jesus eats a balanced breakfast of bread and fish with his disciples, pointing out that they get both carbs and protein.

Then there is Annalies Xaviera, a stay-at-home mom, whose online following has surpassed 300,000 on Facebook alone. She focuses mostly on eating locally-sourced, unprocessed foods, but also incorporates prayer and Bible verses in her videos.

The idea of biblical eating has been around for years, but it has probably never been as popular as it is today, mainly thanks to social media.

Did you know that wasps have the highest protein content of any edible insect? That probably doesn’t mean much to most people, as it’s not like you’re eating Jibachi Senbei for protein, but it’s the only selling point we could find, apart from the snack’s weirdness.

I can think of few things less appetizing than crackers filled with dozens of black, dried wasps, but then again, I’ve never been much of a wasp guy. Something about biting into the dried carcass of an insect never really appealed to me for some reason, but Jibachi Senbei are reportedly quite the novelty snack in Japan, especially among seniors.

To create the world-famous wasp crackers, the elderly wasp hunters of Omachi Jibachi Aikokai set traps in the forest, boil and dry the wasps, and then give them to a local baker who incorporates them into crackers. The dough is said to be mildly sweet, while the dried insects taste similar to burned raisins, which certainly doesn’t sound very appetizing.

The wasp species used to make Jibachi Senbei (Vespula flaviceps or Kurosuzume bachi) are digger wasps safe for human consumption, but that doesn’t necessarily make them delicacies. The smell you’re hit by when opening a pack of these unique treats can allegedly be compared to that of fish food, which makes a lot of sense, but itsn’t the best selling point for the crackers.

Invented in Omachi, Jibachi Senbei wasp crackers can be found at local markets and select gourmet stores in the Japanese city, with some tourists traveling her specifically to give them a try.

The concept behind the bizarre ‘high skull’ trend is pretty straightforward – if the distance between your hairline and the top of your skull is longer than the distance between your eyebrows and your hairline, you are in luck. If not, you apparently need to do something to achieve this popular face-hugging look.

Often considered the most difficult area to ‘influence’, the crown of the head has recently become the focus of China’s beauty industry. There are special hairclips designed to create the illusion of a taller skull, hairspray to increase hair volume, and even innovative hairstyles to make the top of the head appear taller.

For many, using tricks to create the illusion of a taller skull simply doesn’t cut it. Despite a host of risks, they prefer invasive cosmetic procedures like hyaluronic acid injections, plastic implants, and even bone cement, a type of adhesive typically used in orthopedic surgery to fix joints. 

 “Cranial augmentation” procedures usually involve a 3-6 cm incision in the scalp, followed by separating the periosteum and inserting material underneath to lift the crown into the desired shape. Some high-tech prosthesis like PEEK, a 3D-printed implant that can be designed to fit an individual’s bone structure, titanium plates, or bone grafting.

The use of bone cement for skull heightening is probably the most controversial and dangerous procedure. The surgeon makes a 3cm incision in the scalp, uses a drill to create small holes in the bone, then quickly injects the material and shapes it before it solidifies. 

Hyaluronic acid injections are arguably the least invasive way to get a high skull, but they are not without risk. Chinese social media is full of horror stories from people who injected copious amounts of acid under their scalp to boost the top of their heads, only to be left with permanent bald patches.

Medical experts warn that injecting large quantities of hyaluronic acid is a recipe for disaster, as it can cause what is known as tissue crowding, which reduces blood flow to the hair follicles and leaves people with permanent bald patches. Photos and videos on Chinese social media suggest that this is a real issue associated with the high-skull beauty trend.

China followed a variety of bizarre beauty trends over the years, like an obsession with protruding ears, but the high skull is definitely among the weirdest and most disturbing yet.

“If a client throws up as a result of having eaten too much, the restaurant reserves the right to charge them an extra fee to cover damages,” a sign posted by Sushi Toro reads.

Photo: Sushi Toro/Facebook

The Spanish restaurant explained that the growing number of vomiting incidents affects other diners, service, management and hygiene in the establishment, so they basically had no other choice but to implement the vomiting fee to discourage overeating.

“We work hard to get orders out on time and maintain good hygiene,” Sushi Toro management stated “ and therefore we ask for collaboration as this is also affecting other clients eating in the restaurant”.

It’s unclear how much greedy patrons have to pay of they end up throwing up at Sushi Toro, but its buffet costs between €16.90 ($20) and €23.90 ($28), depending on the day of the week and the time of day. 

For decades, sci-fi fans have been dreaming of the day they would be able to pilot their very own Gundam mobile suits or Pacific Rim-inspired mechas, and their wait could finally be at an end. Although we’ve seen some attempts at creating real-life mechas before, none of them come close to Unitree’s recently unveiled GD01.

In a video that has since gone viral on Chinese social media, Unitree CEO Wang Xingxing can be seen climbing into the driver’s seat of the company’s very first manned mecha and using it to move around and smash through walls. Although the full capabilities of the GD01 have not yet been revealed, it’s definitely the most advanced and impressive mecha we’ve ever seen.

The roughly 2.7-meter-tall mecha weighs about 500 kilograms (including the human operator) and can fluidly shift from bipedal mode to quadrupedal mode, at the touch of a button.

The Unitree GD01 is being marketed as the world’s first manned mecha ready for mass production. The starting price for such a unit is 3.9 million yuan ($650,000), which has been criticized as prohibitive for the vast majority of mecha enthusiasts. However, Unitree representatives have come out to clarify that the Chinese company is still working on optimizing production and lowering costs to bring down the price as much as possible.

Although the official launch of the GD01 mecha has yet to be announced, Unitree’s latest creation has already attracted a lot of attention worldwide. Many declared themselves excited about the prospect of owning and operating their own Gundam-like mechanized suits, while others pointed out some real-world usability concerns, including difficulties getting in and out of the mecha, and battery life.

Since 1963, the Mauritania Railway has operated a number of freight trains to transport large quantities from the center of the West African country, through the Sahara Desert, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Known as Iron Ore Trains or Desert Express, these trains haul dozens of open-air cars full of iron ore for more than 700 kilometers (435 miles).

Like many other extreme experiences, riding on Mauritania’s Iron Ore Train was popularized by social media, after photos and videos posted by thrill-seekers went viral on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. With their faces covered and surrounded by desert and barren rocks, they looked like Fremen from Frank Herbert’s Dune.

As travelers started posting detailed vlogs and instructions on how to board the Desert Express, more and more people flocked to Mauritania for this unique experience. But this posed a problem to local authorities, because of the danger tourists were exposing themselves to. As exciting as photos and videos posted online may look, the fact is that riding an open-air train car full of soot through the desert comes with risks. If somebody falls, they are stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no food and no water. Plus, there is no way of safely getting off the train in case of an emergency.

In 2024, Mauritanian authorities decided to ban people from riding the Iron Ore Train, but that only made people covet the experience even more. Today, daredevils from all over the world travel to West Africa to illegally ride the train through the Sahara Desert for over 17 hours, just so they can post about it online.

Despite warnings of Mauritanian police and border security searching through travelers’ bags and even their phones for evidence of them riding the Iron Ore Express, and even pirates riding alongside the trains, jumping onto cars, and demanding up to 100 dollars per person, more people are riding the infamous desert train than ever before.

Riding on the Iron Ore Train is such a coveted experience that some tourists are willing to pay Mauritanian locals to smuggle them onto these trains.