Over 21 million people took under 100 steps a day in Golden Week

Turns out people don't like to walk much when there's a break

Now that you’re back from a week-long Golden Week holiday (sadly), you have to awkwardly go about those 'how was your holiday' conversations at work. ‘Did you go anywhere?’ ‘No. Did you?’ ‘No.’ *Cue awkward silence.*

If you've had that exact conversation, you're not alone. According to a report released as an infographic by WeChat, over 21 million people walked fewer than 100 steps per day during Golden Week. Maybe that immobility has something to do with 616 million travellers, as China Daily reports, crowding every train station, road and airport in China. Or, maybe everyone just put their phone down and walked around without it...? Anyone?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 56 percent of the holiday shut-ins were '80s and '90s kids – hence the term ‘hundred step youth’. Also not surprising, but perhaps rather unsettling, is the fact that WeChat tracks all the steps you take and where you take them. But let's just brush that aside for now, and hope that turning off our phone's GPS actually does give us some privacy.

'12 million youths in China chose to stay home over the holidays'. Image: WeChat

WeChat's report goes on to reveal that the top five provinces with the highest concentration of low-steppers were Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Liaoning, in descending order.

And what do you do when you’re bored at home? Order food, of course. WeChat also found that the provinces with the highest number of waimai orders were Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Sichuan, in descending order.

You’ll be happy to hear that these people weren't just staying home and eating takeout, but they were also reading. According to WeChat's report, these shut-ins logged a collective total of 19.87 million hours reading, with the most frequent readers clocking around 12 hours of reading time a day, though they didn't specify what exactly they were looking at, on which device, app or if it was even an actual, physical book.

However, apparently if you live in Shenzhen, Shanghai or Beijing, you were most likely to be stuck home working, with the report listing the most overworked industries as retail, manufacturing and IT. WeChat figured out these data points via their WeChat Work app, a workflow management platform for commercial enterprises.

WeChat, in a moment of being real AF, said 'some people view the world from their Moments, others travel the world and share Moments.’ Judge, much?

Image: WeChat

While all this seems quite sad, one adventurous traveller made the longest recorded journey, going from Shenzhen to the Hill of Seven Colours in Argentina. Thought you could just run to South America and get away from it all? You thought wrong. Because WeChat will definitely know about it.

For more things happening in Beijing, hit 'Read more'.

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