Beijing returns to bikes

At 6.30 every morning, you will find Mr Bian Ce pedalling for 10 minutes from his downtown Beijing home to the nearest subway station.

The 51-year-old then parks his rented bike at an assigned spot and rides the subway for the next 50 minutes to work.

The city of Beijing wants to persuade more of its residents to follow the example of commuters like Mr Bian in switching to the bicycle lane. Last month, the capital announced plans to bring back the bike. Part of its road map to a greener, less polluted city involves going big on renting out bicycles so that commuters will ride rather than drive.

The municipal government said in its latest Green Action Plan that it aims to have a network of 500 bike rental booths with 20,000 bikes by 2012. The plan did not provide details on how the government would achieve this.

There are currently an estimated 100 such booths located mainly in the heart of the sprawling city.

The one-time bicycle capital of the world, Beijing has ditched two-wheelers in favour of cars as its main mode of transport - in a single generation.