It has been seen as a hi-tech bike-sharing boom that entrepreneurs hope will make them rich while transforming China's traffic-jammed cities.
But, occasionally, dreams can turn less pleasant. In the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, more than 500 bicycles for hire have been found dumped in huge piles on the streets, according to reports. Pictures showed vehicles nearly three metres high, with small parts on the ground. City streets around the country have seen an explosion of the colourful bikes that users can rent on demand with a smartphone app and then park wherever they choose.
The sharing economy is taking off in China, where ride-sharing and Airbnb are increasingly commonplace. From Shanghai to Sichuan province, bike-sharing are being started in an effort to reduce traffic jam and air pollution by putting a country once known as the “Kingdom of Bicycles” back on two wheels.
Companies such as Ofo and Mobike, with their yellow and orange bikes, have been in a cut-throat battle for customers. But problems have arisen when clients have abandoned their cycles. “Some people these days just have really bad character,’’ a man named He，who lives near where the piles appeared, told the Southern Metropolis Daily. When they're done using (the bike) they just throw it away somewhere, because they've already paid. Residents told the paper that hikes had been piling up over the past week, either parked random by careless users or piled by local security guards trying to clear narrow residential alleys and footpaths.
Zhuang Chuangyu, a representative at Shenzhen's municipal people s congress, said the city needed to step up regulation of the bike-sharing industry in order to improve conditions and safety standards, especially since schoolchildren often used the bikes.
In 1980, almost 63% of commuters cycled to work, the Beijing Morning
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reported in 2015, citing government data. But by 2000 that number had decreased to 38% and today it stands at less than 12%. Car use, meanwhile, has rocketed. In 2010 China overtook the US to become the worlds largest car market, with 13.5 m vehicles sold in just 12 months.
25. The underlined word “Dreams” in Paragraph 2 does not include .
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