Bike Beijing, Green Olympics

           [ 2007-12-17 15:19 ]

China is known as the "Kingdom of Bicycles", with a world-record(记录)470 million bicycles on the road.

As the nation pushes towards a "green" Olympics for next summer's Games, host（主人）city Beijing is trying to get more of its residents（居民）out of cars and onto bikes.

At China's prestigious（享有声望的）Tsinghua University, you can bike anywhere for a couple of yuan in deposit（押金）.

A staff（职员）of Bike Rental Center said, "It just costs five yuan per hour, 20 yuan for a whole day, and 100 yuan for a year."

Besides the small cost, it's also convenient!

Six bike rental centers have been set up in Tsinghua's 400-hectare（公顷）campus.

They are all linked（连接的）with 50 centers in the renting-network scattered（分散的）around Beijing.

That means the bikers（骑车人）don't need to go back to the campus（校园）to return the rented bicycles.

And outside Tsinghua, and along the roadsides（路旁）of Beijing, the winter-chill（寒意）hasn't slowed the "two wheel" business.

"It's good exercise and environmentally-friendly. I don't need to own a bike,I can just rent it. It saves a lot of time and work." said a bike renter.

But for the "two wheel" market, supply is not meeting demand（需要）.

So far, Beijing has about 70 bike-rental centers, mainly located（位于）in the downtown areas and tourist spots.

Wang Yong, manager of Bejing Bike Rental Program, said, "At an ideal level, we need 400 or 500 rental centers to cover main public transport terminals（终点）, including both bus and subway stations."

The Beijing municipal（市的）government is seeking（寻求）public bids（出价，投标）to run the bike rental network. Before the 2008 Olympic games, 200 service-centers are planned to be set up, with 50 thousand bicycles put into use.

bike-rental center:自行车租赁中心

(Source: cctv.com 英语点津姗姗编辑)