WUHAN - A Japanese man cycling around the world had a longer-than-expected stop in Central China when his bike was stolen.

"My bicycle is my sweet, my girlfriend and my best friend. I really want to get it back," said Keiichiro Kawahara, 28, during a TV interview.

To his surprise, the story quickly spread after he launched a request for help at the popular micro blog site Sina Weibo.

More than 100,000 netizens forwarded his message in three days, and Kawahara and his bicycle became hot keywords.

Thanks to the public's effort, the bike was found at 11 pm on Monday.

Kawahara, from Nagano, quit his nurse job and started traveling around the world in October. His first overseas stop was in Shanghai in November and he arrived in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province, on Feb 3.

He told China Daily that on Feb 17, he found his bike stolen when he was wandering with two friends in Hanjie Street, a pedestrian-only street.

A police officer of the Wuhan public security bureau hands over the retrieved bicycle to Keiichiro Kawahara, a Japanese tourist who is traveling around the world on his bike, in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Monday. The theft of the bike was reported to police on Friday night. Liu Zhongcan / for China Daily