Who would have thought that a factory worker who quits his job in Sichuan to cycle all the way to Tibet and live on 200 yuan (S$42) a month, then tells his tale on social media, could strike such a chord with young Chinese and trigger global interest in the phenomenon we know now as "tang ping", or lying flat?

Kind-Hearted Traveller, as he called himself, wrote on the discussion forum Tieba, in comments not visible now, that "Lying down was my wise man moment".