China's Green Beat 中国绿色脉搏

The newest episode of China’s Green Beat is about public transportation in Beijing. Whereas the first three episodes were filmed and produced in a documentary style, episode 4 is filmed in a comedy and drama style, following one main character Sun Zhe as he has various experiences around Beijing on the subway, the bus, and his bike.
中国绿色脉搏的最新一集是关于北京的公共交通。鉴于前三集的拍摄与制作都是以纪录片形式的，第四集我们以喜剧形式拍摄，并以孙哲为主角。孙哲有很多在北京城里乘坐地铁，公交以及骑自行车的经验。
People who have been to Beijing know that both the air and the traffic can get quite bad. The two are closely linked, as vehicles are the cause of 40% of Beijing’s air pollution, according the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau. Currently, only 1/3 of trips in Beijing are on public transport, while 1/3 are in private vehicles. The buses are crowded and uncomfortable while the subways are limited in the number of places you can get to; public transportation certainly doesn’t appeal to those who own a car. There are already 3 millions cars on the road, with at least 1000 new ones hitting the streets every day.Much of the problem can be attributed to Beijing’s sprawling urban design. It simply takes a very long time to get between two points. The area of Beijing (within the fifth ring road) is comparable to New York’s five boroughs. The future of Beijing’s public transportation system does look bright though. The system already carries 15 million commuters every day, and that number is expected to rise to 28 million by 2012. This would raise the proportion of those riding public transport from 1/3 to 1/2.The subway system currently consists of five lines with a combined length of 142 kilometers. By 2008, there will be nine lines totaling 200 kilometers and by 2020, 19 lines totaling 561.5 kilometers, set to be the longest in the world. When the new subway line 5 was introduced, the government cut the subway fare to only two yuan. Suddenly, the daily subway ridership was near 2.5 million, up 900,000 from the month before. Efforts are also being made to improve the city’s bus system; for instance, the government has introduced 4000 new buses that run on cleaner-burning natural gas.

Tags: Beijing, bike, bus, China, environment, green, Public Transport, subway