Fifteen-year-old Liu Bin dragged himself out of bed ten minutes earlier this week to walk to school rather than being taken in his father's car.
"The vehicles in a long queue in front of our school gate pollute the air, threatening our health," Liu, a student at the Yali Middle School in Changsha, capital city of central China's Hunan Province, said.
Liu was among the 900,000 students in the city encouraged to walk to school in the city's Public Transport Week from September 16 to 22.
The move was not only aimed at encouraging students to choose a more environmentally-friendly mode of transport, but having them influence their parents to reduce the use of private cars. Teachers were also encouraged to leave behind their cars to be "role models for students", according to a circular from the Changsha education bureau.
Like Changsha, 107 other cities in China nationwide were involved in the campaign with the theme of "Green Transport and Health" to ease traffic congestion in the cities and pollution caused by an increasing number of cars on the road.
The cities will set one or more zones which are open only to pedestrians, cyclists, taxis and buses between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on September 22.
In southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, citizens have been called on to "walk quickly one kilometer a day" by the sports bureau.
"Walking is a kind of simple and safe sport which helps prevent epidemics," said Zhang Xin, vice director of the bureau, who came up with the ingenious suggestion of naming the first weekday of the annual Public Transport Week "Walking Day" to relieve people's reliance on vehicles.
In Changchun, capital city of northeast China's Jilin Province, citizens who had used IC card when taking buses on September 16 could enter a prize draw.
Mi Zenglin was delighted to win a computer. "I will ask more people to join me in taking buses," he said.
The number of IC card users in Changchun stands at 800,000 out of the city's 7.13 million people. "I hope more people will choose public transportation," said Cui Shusen, CEO of Changchun public transport group.
In Beijing, 176 kilometers of public transportation lanes have been put into use, which shall be lengthened to 250 kilometers by the end of this year, bringing the average speed of buses from 14 kilometers per hour to 20 kilometers during rush hour.
Twenty-three new bus lines have gone into service this week, said Yao Zhenping, assistant general manager of the Beijing public transportation group.
In many cities government officials joined citizens to take buses to work.
On the crowded bus No. 211, Chen Xiangqun, mayor of Nanning, capital city of southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, listened to complaints of passengers and vowed to improve public transport.
In the commercial hub of Shanghai, Wu Yi, vice director of the Shanghai urban transport bureau not only took buses but assessed drivers and conductors.
"The experience of taking public transport can help us improve the policies," he said.
Chen Xiaohong, vice head of the transport department of the Tongji University, shared his view. "Traffic is closely related to the lives of everybody," he said, "policy-makers should try to meet the real needs of residents."
However, Guangzhou, city with a population of more than ten million people and one million cars, rejected Public Transportation Week.
"Limiting the use of cars is not practical in the city," said an unnamed official with the municipal government.
Miss Chen, a resident of Guangzhou, said the campaign was more like a good wish. "We can leave our cars behind for one or two days," she said, "but to change people's ideas needs more efforts from the government."
(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2007)
