The most viewed stories on SCMP.com in 2015: Mainland air travellers, dog meat and money

The year is at an end, and SCMP.com has brought to light a wealth of news about Hong Kong, China and the world. But what was your favourite? All will be revealed in our series of top ten lists to air from now to new year’s eve.

Without further ado, the most read article isn’t a story at all but an infographic that proved popular all year:

1. A world of languages — and how many speak them

This Alberto Lucas Lopez graphic showed the vast spectrum of 7,102 human languages, as well as the most popular. It went live in May and was still among our most popular articles at the end of the year. Chinese languages were obviously the most widely spoken mother tongues but can you guess which language is the most studied?

2. Dog meat vendor dies after hitting himself with poisoned dart

Schadenfreude, a popular topic on the internet as you’ve likely noticed. Well there seemed no sweeter example among to our online readers than this story about a dog meat vendor meeting his end in August. He was showing his gang how to use a poison dart in a crossbow meant for a dog, which ended up hitting him in the leg. Chinese people have been taking to the cause of animal rights and the community of dog lovers has grown more vocal, butting heads with the traditional practice of eating dog meat.

3. ‘Something’s not right on this flight’: Passenger’s video captures panic as smoke forces Cathay plane to make emergency landing

Every air traveller’s worst nightmare was incredibly brought into sharp focus in July when quick thinking Ethan Williams recorded himself preparing for an emergency landing. The cabin crew was rushing around, smoke was detected in the aircraft and people woke up to crying passengers. With lifejackets on all 294 onboard the plane was allowed a normal landing at a military base in Alaska, and finally reached Los Angeles safely.

4. Chinese woman killed minutes after messaging her car was stranded by busy road with flat tyre

In June, tragedy struck one family whose everyday annoyance went horribly wrong. While fixing a flat tyre, this couple seemed to have done everything right by putting up warning signs on the busy road in Hangzhou. But when one sign fell over the woman was hit by a passing BMW when she tried to put it back up again. She had just posted a message to social media with her phone that later made her husband weep.

5. ‘It’s better than cheating on my wife’: Sex dolls fulfil the needs of China’s lonely men

Sex dolls, pretty bizarre. But when Chinese men are forced to move away from home for work the cold comfort of dolls with names like 156 are, at least for some, better than nothing. It’s a solution to a real problem for one 29-year old car designer who told the Post in April he is separated from his wife and toddler for most of the week and has common urges while not being prepared to submit to them. “Honestly, it is very easy to just pay a little money to find a woman in China, but I simply cannot bring myself to cheat on my wife, so I have never considered it,” he said. But he can’t put aside all reservations: “As an industrial designer I can’t neglect the lack of realistic details,” he lamented. “So I just used it a few times.”