Sanitation workers in Hangzhou mourn their free-noodle friend

HANGZHOU - After news of Zhang Chengliang's death was announced this week, sanitation workers in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, were in a sorrowful mood.

Zhang was the owner of a noodle restaurant that for the past five years has offered sanitation workers more than 53,000 free bowls of noodles for breakfast during the coldest months of the year.

Zhang died of an illness at the age of 57 last month, according to an obituary circulated widely on China's social media platform WeChat.