Instead of visiting relatives by car, people opted to ride public bicycles together to enjoy the cycling experience... This Spring Festival, public bicycles remained hugely popular among residents. Over the seven-day break, there were 255,000 rentals, and cycling to pay New Year calls has quietly become a new trend during the Year of the Snake.
On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Mr. Chen and his family of three rented three bicycles to visit relatives on Jianhe Road. Mr. Chen said that over the two-day holiday, taxis were hard to come by, and taking the bus meant going around in circles—cycling was simply a better option for visiting family. Since most of his relatives and friends live nearby, he had planned to cycle to pay his New Year calls even before the holiday. Ms. Gao, a resident of Chaisi Lane, also found cycling very convenient. Every year on the first day of the Lunar New Year, she visits Chongshan Temple to pray, but during the Spring Festival, the area around the temple gets crowded, buses don’t go through, and cars can’t enter, so she used to have to walk. This year, however, she rented a public bicycle early in the morning and encountered many others also cycling to the temple.
In addition, experiencing public bicycles became an option for some who returned home for the holidays. Xiao Zhang, who works in Yangquan, borrowed a family member’s transit IC card after returning to Taiyuan to try out the convenience of public bikes. After using them for several days, Xiao Zhang said he found them both eco-friendly and convenient, and he sincerely hopes they will be more widely available soon.
“During the Spring Festival, many residents rented public bicycles for travel, and quite a few who came back home for the holiday also showed great interest after seeing them,” a public bicycle service point manager told reporters yesterday. Later, reporters learned from the Taiyuan Public Bicycle Company that about 255,000 rentals were made across the city during the seven-day holiday. To ensure normal usage for residents, all administrators and dispatchers worked throughout the holiday period. A representative from the public transport department noted that since their introduction, public bicycles have changed the travel habits of many residents and have become the preferred choice for short-distance trips. This Spring Festival, public bicycles were also one of the hot topics among residents, and cycling to pay New Year calls, as part of a low-carbon holiday, has gradually become a new fashion.