Can you guess what it is about Britain that is making a big impact on the online traffic in China? Could it be the iconic British landmarks and history? The royal family? London’s vibrant fashion scene? The Barclays Premier League? You would be forgiven for thinking it was any of these things but in fact they are all wrong.

What has been trending in China is The London Underground; yes the London Underground according to BBC Trending. The London Underground also known as ‘the tube’ or ‘the underground’ is rich in history and is known all around the world by the widely recognisable logo and tube lines but yet these are still not the reasons for the underground’s popularity in China. The reason why the London Underground has been so popular recently in China is because of the “handsome” men commuting via the tubes. Sina Weibo, a Chinese micro blogging site (which is in Mandarin, currently being translated into English) is responsible for this. Images of photogenic male tube commuters have emerged on these micro blogs and been shared and liked numerous times, where a single image alone could receive over 100k shares and likes. The images receive largely positive comments generally about how good looking the individuals are. One user wrote “Handsome people really look good in anything” whist another declared “I want to take Tubes every day!”.

The pictures come from TubeCrush.net which was launched by a group of friends from London. TubeCrush.net is a British website which enables users to upload snaps of good looking men taken in secret whist on the tube. Speaking to BBC Trending, the popularity of these pictures are not much of a surprise to co-founder Stephen Motion, as he says that China is the third biggest source of traffic to their website, he then goes on to say “the website isn’t blocked in China. It’s fully available in all of the cities. We see most traffic coming from Guangzhou and Shanghai.”

Naturally, a website based on secretly taken pictures without the individual’s knowledge or consent is bound to raise some issues about legality and privacy as well as whether or not the website has an element of sexism in the way the images ‘objectify’ these men. These are issues TubeCrush.net is keen to contest; they argue that all images are legal as they were all taken in a public place. Stephan Motion also goes on to say if these individuals are not comfortable with their faces being published on their website, there is a way to get the image removed “We have a photo removal function where they can request to take it down” he then states “Interestingly we don’t receive many requests. When people discover they’ve been photographed, they’re actually quite proud.”

So why are these pictures of British men proving so popular with Chinese internet users? Ruhua Xianyu from the BBC’s Chinese Service says that Chinese people’s perception of the British man is one of good manners and politeness suggesting “When Chinese people think about British men, we think they’re true gentlemen” whilst concluding its more about the ‘quality’ of the man rather than the looks.