College Student Earns ₹35 Lakh From Teaching People To Ride Bicycles

A master’s student in China has gone viral on social media after earning a substantial income by teaching adults and children to ride bicycles. The man has earned 270,000 yuan (around ₹35.2 lakh) over the past two years.

The student, reportedly surnamed Li, is in his third year of a master’s program in sports education at Shanghai University of Sport. Li said he discovered the idea years ago, when he and a friend noticed a strong demand for bicycle-riding lessons. His friend later moved on to a job in Shanghai, leaving Li to pursue the venture on his own. After joining college, he started his own “cycle school” and began sharing cycling-related videos to attract learners. Within two months, many people began approaching him, and he started teaching as a side job while continuing his studies.

Li conducts lessons in open spaces near his students’ homes. He offers a package priced at 800 yuan (around ₹10,000), which includes two sessions for adults, each lasting two and a half to three hours. Children are given extra time to learn. So far, Li has trained nearly 700 people, ranging from four-year-old children to seniors aged 68. Most learners are between 20 and 30 years old, and around 70 percent are women. Li said he never expected his idea to gain such widespread support, noting that more people in China are choosing bicycles as a convenient way to commute.

One of his students said they took up cycling to make up for never learning as a child and managed to ride successfully after just one hour of training. Li is set to complete his master’s degree in June and plans to expand his classes across Shanghai and surrounding areas.