Drag racing by high-speed trains? Popular video in China attracting tech memes
By Gong Zhe
["china"]
01:00
A video showing two Chinese high-speed trains running like drag racing went viral in the country. The whole thing was a misunderstanding, experts said.
The clip shot by a passenger on board Fuxing-type high-speed rail (HSR) shows overtaking another HSR, a Hexie-type. 
The Fuxing-type suddenly speeds up, leaving the Hexie-type to eat its dust.
A cheerful screaming can be heard in the video when the speed up took place.
"While we are racing with cars, they are dueling with trains," a Weibo user commented under the post, harvesting hundreds of thumbs-ups.
However, the duel didn't exist at all, according to multiple experts from the HSR industry.
"It's technically impossible for HSR drivers to do drag racing," an HSR staff told Beijing Youth Daily.
"The whole HSR network across China is controlled by one central system. If the system told the Fuxing to accelerate, there got to be a more practical reason than 'let's find out who runs faster!'"
Since Fuxing runs at 350 kilometer per hour and Hexie is about 1/3 slower, it's possible that the Fuxing slowed down due to temporary traffic congestion in the HSR network.
Probably, netizens were unaware of these technical facts.  Memes about the viral video spread fast on Weibo with hundreds of people mentioning fake quotes.
"Excuse me, heading for Beijing to attend an important meeting," a Weibo user wrote.
"Catch me if you can," another user commented.
The memes continued to go viral even after experts explained why racing between trains is not possible.  Some said things like "come on! We knew that already. We are just having fun. Why so serious?"
Some others pointed out the official statements are necessary in case some people took the racing for real.