Cool connections

College student Zhao Song, 21, has never been an early bird. He lives alone in an apartment near his campus and has long been in the habit of getting up at about midday.

Now, though, he has no chance of sleeping in so late. He is often bombarded from as early as 6 am by calls from complete strangers up to 30 of them.

His dramatic lifestyle change began by accident last November when Zhao happened to visit a popular website, www.douban.com. There, he was drawn to a group with the strange name: "There are many people waking you up early in the morning".