Did you know that hugs are good for your health? And these young people are going around the Taipei Main Station to give away hugs!

They are from Zhong-yuan University and today is the first day of their meeting the challenge of hugging strangers. Given how unaccustomed local people are to hugs, this really takes quite an amount of courage.

They said as participants of a “城市浪人” campaign launched by the NTU, they need to take on 30 challenges as a way to explore their potential.

The Race for “城市浪人”, or City Wanderers,  in fact started on May 8th (I didn’t know this until I read their Facebook) to encourage college students to go beyond their comfort zone and do things they won’t normally do.

Examples include preparing meals for school mates, cleaning up garbage, writing an article for the school’s publications, etc. And hugging strangers is definitely one of the more challenging things in the list!

So if you do see them, don’t hesitate. Go up and give them a hug! You’d feel good all day long. I did.