The China Foundation For Human Rights Development has launched a public welfare program of free public bicycles in Beijing to promote the nation's efforts in building an energy-saving and environmentally-friendly society.
According CFFHRD representative Fan Jianqing, CFFHRD will provide all the necessary funding for the program and will commission third party units to be responsible for the construction, operation and management of program whose normal operation will financed by income from advertisement at each station. Fan said that the construction of each station would last for three to five months, depending on the size of the city and the ownership of the stations would be donated to the local government upon the completion of their construction.
It is said that the program will have six features: free bicycle rental; a simple procedure for renting a bicycle; personalized service (with three different types of bicycle available at each station); extensive spreading of the renting stations and a large number of bicycles available; long opening hours; and balanced allocation of bicycles among all stations.
The program is currently being run on a trial basis in 16 Chinese cities of Huhhot, Hefei, Chengdu, Fuzhou, Zhuhai, Taiyuan, Changsha, Yantai, Tangshan, Nanjing, Guilin, Zunyi, Ningbo, Haikou, Sanya, and Kunming and it is expected to be promoted in other cities in China following the trials.
