Trending: Pangolins, a Fat Dog, and Baijiu Fury at 30,000 Feet

Original Joey Knotts theBeijinger

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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.

"Pangolin scales" dropped from Chinese medicine

Among other wildlife, the plight of the pangolin has been brought to the forefront by COVID-19. While it may not be the source of the virus, speculation on the matter earlier this year renewed the debate about the pangolin's status as one of the most hunted and endangered animals in the world, due in large part to the high value of its scales for use in Chinese medicine. In fact, according to the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit, one pangolin is hunted every five minutes and a single gram of scales can retail for up to RMB 18,800.

Last week, animal conservationists rejoiced as "pangolin scales" was officially scrapped as a term in Chinese medicine. Following the hashtag 'Pangolin scales removed from pharmacopeia' #穿山甲从药典中除名#, netizens expressed their solidarity with the measure and called for increased pangolin protections.

"The whole internet is gathered around the pangolin as it lays pitifully in a basket," wrote one blogger.

Angelababy cradles a pangolin in a pangolin-awareness Mother's Day ad

Even celebrity Angelababy chimed in, writing in a comment, "We must come together to protect the grade-one state-protected animal, the pangolin. We should not let it become extinct from nature."

Salmon drops from the shelves

With imported salmon being an early suspected source of the capital's latest COVID-19 cases, the situation has turned into a bit of a seafood scare across China, including Beijing, removing salmon from local markets, sparking the hashtag '14 places take salmon off the shelves' #14地紧急下架三文鱼#.

The dangers of salmon are discussed on the local news

While news accounts were quick to snatch up the story, average Zhous were skeptical of the panic. "Salmon do not even have a single lung, so how could it catch the virus?" wrote one Chaoyang-based user. "It’s very clear it just came from a worker or turned up at some point during processing."

Playing on the Chinese name of salmon, 三文鱼 sānwènyú, the first character of which means “three,” one user posted, "Will the class dissidents place the blame on the 'four wenyu' the same way as they have blamed the 'three wenyu?'" in an apparent reference to the destruction of the Four Olds during the Cultural Revolution.

Meanwhile, in an effort to solidify the war on salmon, state media began pushing another hashtag, ‘foreign media exposes salmon farming conditions’ #外媒曝光挪威三文鱼养殖环境#, circulating a video claiming that "countless evils" are going on in the crowded farms of Norway, causing the fish to become sick and deformed.

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Doggo gets his big booty stuck in a bench

The self-explanatory hashtag, 'Dog is too fat and gets stuck in a park bench' #狗子太胖被公园长椅卡住# began trending last week, accompanied by a video of a golden retriever who let its rear end inauspiciously slip through space between the seat and the back of a park bench in Changping District. Much to the pup’s delight, however, a number of park visitors came to the rescue.

"Dog: Sorry, time spent in quarantine made me too fat!" quipped one commenter.

The woman who downed a plane with her bare fist has been arrested

Late last month, a woman who decided to drink two 250ml bottles of baijiu after a nasty breakup caused quite the uproar on a domestic flight when she punched the airplane window with enough force to crack it – an apparent metaphor for her heart – forcing the plane to land at Lanzhou Airport.

Baijiu is known to give mothers the ability to lift a car

This week, the hashtag 'Dumped drunk woman shatters airplane window' #失恋醉酒女子砸破舷窗致航班备降# began trending once again with the news that the woman had been arrested. She claims to have no memory of the incident.

It’s not the first instance of baijiu causing a ruckus on an airplane, and a number of netizens were quick to suggest breathalyzing before boarding.