The screenshot of the one who got the first place in the special activity celebrating Fudan University's 111st anniversary of founding initiated by Fudan University Alumni Association. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A poster calling on alumni of Fudan University to join the celebration of "the loneliest birthday ever in history" by walking recently went viral on WeChat, a WhatsApp-like messaging app.

Fudan University Alumni Association posted the poster with the line above on all its social media accounts the day before May 27th when Fudan University marked its 111st anniversary of founding.

As "111st" is spelt with three same single numerals "one", the association described it as the "loneliest" birthday and called on all alumni to occupy the cover pages of their WeChat friends on "WeChat Sports", an in-built feature that can track users' fitness data, by using the poster also saying "I love Fudan".

The WeChat Sports can count users' steps and turn it into a social competition with a real-time updating leaderboard, who tops on which can occupy others' cover pages with their profile pictures. And the competition concludes as of 10:00pm every day

First 10 attendants who can occupy the most cover pages by the end of the day can win a prize offered by the association, which includes four kinds of souvenirs specially designed for the anniversary.

The one who got the first place in this activity occupied 1,205 cover pages, with two followers respectively at 600 and 501, according to the association.

Such a rewarding rule has "upset" some enthusiastic attendants a little. One posted on the message board of the association's WeChat account, "I've almost made 40,000 steps, but I don't have that many WeChat friends. Please make me the top 10 in view of my arduous efforts." He ended the message with an emoji showing shyness.

"WeChat Sports is very popular now. It enable us to socialize with others even doing sports," Li Sijia, one of the staff members of the association who came up with the idea and promoted the activity said.

Explaining why she tried to popularize the celebration in this way, Li said: "I became addicted to this function when I started to use it in April. And one day after my cover page was occupied the whole day by a friend, I realized the cover page was best place for advertisement."

This activity generated resonance with Fudan alumni. In a message sent to the association's WeChat account, an anonymous alumnus from Guangxi Zhuang antonymous region with WeChat ID "Songsong" recalled his best old days in Fudan.

"Today, I will walk for Fudan, for myself, and for a better future," he wrote.

"This activity was welcomed on the social media. We have received nearly 130 screenshots of attendants' Wechat Sports profiles," Lin Jingjing, another staff member of the association responsible for the celebration, told chinadaily.com.cn.

"Many who didn't submit the screenshots also posted in the Moment of their WeChat accounts. And our advertisement for this activity on the WeChat account has been forwarded many times," she added.

Wu Hao, a graduate of Fudan University this year who also attended the activity, said: "I think it really fun. And it's also a good way to commemorate."

He really enjoyed it although he only occupied 14 cover pages for a while on the afternoon of 27th because it rained and he had to work that day.