China Reinvigorate the Nation’s Love Affair with the Bike.doc

China Reinvigorate the Nation’s Love Affair with the Bike 　　In recent months an unmissable fleet of fluorescent orange， canary yellow and ocean blue bicycles has hit the streets of urban China as part of a hi-tech bike-sharing boom that entrepreneurs hope will make them rich while simultaneously transforming the country’s traffic-clogged cities. Even through Beijing’s nicotine-tinged smog you can make out the multi-coloured frames， gliding through the pea soup towards a greener future. In recent months an unmissable fleet of fluorescent orange， canary yellow and ocean blue bicycles has hit the streets of urban China as part of a hi- tech bike-sharing boom that entrepre-neurs hope will make them rich while simultaneously transforming the country’s traffic-clogged cities. “We want to solve problems by getting bikes back on to the streets of our cities，” said Li Zekun， the 25-year-old marketing director of Ofo， one of the startups spearheading this 21st-century transport revolution. From Shanghai to Sichuan province， bike-sharing schemes are being rolled out on an unprecedented scale in an effort to slash congestion and air pollution by putting a country once known as the “Kingdom of Bicycles” back on two wheels. Ofo， so named because of the word’s resemblance to a bicycle， has put about 250，000 of its bright yellow bikes to work since late 2015， of which around 40，000-50，000 are in the capital， according to Li. The Peking University biology graduate said his company， which was founded by five students looking to improve transport options on university campuses， had attracted about 3 million users in cities such as Beijing， Shanghai， Xiamen and Guangzhou. Its bicycles make about 1.5m trips each day between them. “For short journeys， bikes are the best form of transport，” Li enthused at Ofos headquarters in the Internet Finance Centre， a 26-floor building in western Beijing. “You never know when a bus might come. It might not be easy to find a