Several online maps have named a street in Beijing after an art student who, a few years ago, erected his own street signs bearing his own name on them.
Several online maps have named a street in Beijing after an art student who, a few years ago, erected his own street signs bearing his own name on them.
Photo:Shanghaidaily
The man, named Ge Yulu, became an Internet sensation after he named a street after him and shared the experience about it on social media, with the tagline: “How to boast a road named after oneself in Beijing.”
The former student from Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2013, searched for Beijing streets in the city that had been unnamed. But the signs were later recorded by some online maps, according to Beijing Youth Daily.
A Beijing artist put his name, Ge Yulu, on an unnamed road and a few years later, the road appears on most digital maps. Photo: Handout
The name can still be found on two popular web maps including Baidu Maps and Amap now, the newspaper said.
The street, located in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, is not a long and bustling road and takes about 10 minute’s to walk from one end to the other. A local resident told the newspaper that residents called the street “Ge Yu Lu” (lu is Chinese for “road”) but did not know why it was named that way.
Beijing artist Ge Yulu put his name on an unnamed road a few years later as part of an art project. His name can also be read as Gu Yu Street in Chinese. Photo:Shanghaidaily
Yet Ge Yulu’s fame soon came to an end when an official, from the city’s urban planning committee, found out about his street-naming shenanigans. Ge Yulu was told residents cannot personally name a road or make and hang road signs on unnamed lanes. Those who do take such liberties will be fined.
The administrative department, in charge of urban planning, is responsible for naming roads.
Local urban management authorities were scheduled to remove the road sign today, on July 13. Ge Yulu’s road has yet to be given an official name.
Photo:Shanghaidaily
As usual, opinions on the matter differed online.
“The department didn’t do its job, but don’t want ordinary people do it, either,” someone wrote on Weibo.
“There are many heroes that have contributed to the country and streets should not named by a ordinary person,” another commented sanctimoniously.
