BEIJING: A man in China has dug up a yam that looks exactly like a human hand, shocking many people online.
The man, who lives in Jieyang, in southern China’s Guangdong province, unearthed the oddly shaped vegetable on his farm.
It looks so much like a hand that it seems to even have nails and skin.
Chinese yams often grow into various shapes, as their appearance is greatly affected by external factors such as the soil and random rocks.
However, it is rare for such a vegetable to grow so vividly like a hand.
On March 17, the man’s son-in-law said someone offered 8,000 yuan (US$1,150) for the vegetable, but they rejected the offer.
“The photos really scared me,” said one online observer.
“The yam looks like it has even had a manicure,” said another.
“Nature is wonderful,” said a third.
Blacklisted by BYD
A Chinese shop which sells BYD electric vehicles has banned a customer because he took too much advantage of its free benefits.
Recently, the owner of a BYD vehicle asked an influencer for help, saying he had been mistreated by a BYD shop in central China’s Anhui province.
The man said the shop refused to give him the free charging, car wash service and free meals that they promised him when selling the car in 2024.
The influencer went to the shop with the man, and staff told him that the man had visited them 260 times in the previous 12 months for free meals, even bringing his own meal box to take out the food.
The staff said it was normal to visit for free meals two or three times a month, and that they had offered the man an “abnormal amount of service”.
They said they could not meet the man’s high demands and other unreasonable requests, such as bringing his electric bike along with the car for charging.
Their conflict escalated when the man parked his car at the shop’s car park for new vehicles and refused to move away.
The staff said it is strictly forbidden to do so as there was a risk of damaging the new vehicles.
The man said both parties called the police a total of more than 10 times. The shop had blacklisted the man and asked him to take the case to court.
The man’s car is a BYD Qin, which is priced around 100,000 yuan (US$14,500).
“I should have bought a BYD Qin instead of a flat, and enjoy free accommodation at its shop,” an online observer quipped.
Another backed the customer: “Technically he was not wrong since the store had promised all those things.”
Long-term lottery win
A retiring Chinese man who bought lottery tickets for decades has finally achieved his big win.
A 60-year-old from eastern China’s Zhejiang province was reported to have won a 10.46 million-yuan (US$1.5 million) lottery jackpot in March.
He said he got into the lottery when he was young and had been buying tickets regularly for decades, choosing his own numbers.
Some online observers admired that his life in retirement was now “more secure”. - South China Morning Post
