Beijing welcomes the Chinese New Year with the wish for a greener future, partly through bike-sharing. (Photo : Getty Images)
While conjuring an image of a smog-free Beijing comes off as difficult these days, it nonetheless has become a conceivable reality this Chinese New Year. The Chinese capital experiences change in its air quality as Chunyun clears the city from people, with the absence of cars and the proliferation of bike-sharing.
The mass exodus that is Chunyun left Beijing virtually carless, and it's bound to remain so throughout the Spring Festival holiday, the Irish Times reported. On normal days, traffic jams are a conventional sight, alongside a large blanket of smog afflicting peoples' breathing faculties.
Beijing, as it is right now, is home to a seemingly endless scene of construction sites and factories. However, festivities during the Chinese New Year has restrained the industrializing clockwork, as workers have headed home to their families as they celebrate the holiday together.
Indeed, such scenarios during the Chinese New Year make Beijing a great place to visit during that time. What used to be a place sated with pushbikes on every street corner has now been plagued by smog-inducing vehicles--undeniably a mark of China's rising middle class, albeit with environmental costs.
But as pushbikes have been relegated to a distant memory of Beijing, two-wheeled wonders continue to serve as a crucial ingredient for the city's efforts to go green. Bike-sharing has become the latest in a series of efforts to clear the city of bad air, and it receives a great deal of private-sector support.
Mobike, one of such platforms, has received assistance from Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn in its expansion efforts, per Fortune. Other bike-sharing firms such as Ofo and Bluegogo are also prevalent throughout Beijing, proof that the demand for mobility also comes popularly in two wheels.
Technology isn't neglected either in Beijing's bike-sharing programs, as several of the available bikes are GPS-powered and boast sleek designs. That, for sure, provides a great deal of motivation for locals to utilize two wheels to supplement their fast-paced lifestyles, as they usher in a newer and greener China.
