By Song Xi 23 rd September 2005

On 18th September, university student volunteers wearing tunics with the “International Car Free Day” logo, rode their bikes, walked or took buses around a series of communities and office blocks in Chaoyang District's Dongda Bridge, Chaoyang men, Yong'an li and Sanli tun, where they stuck up posters to raise awareness.

At the same time, on another procession of people traveled from Xuefuyuan to Beijing Zoo and gave passers by information about the approaching “International Car Free Day”.

One team of people walked into communities and office blocks to stick up awareness-raising posters. They stopped regularly to give passers-by information about “International Car Free Day”.

One volunteer who took part in this activity wrote “Car Free Day is a day for everyone, but it is especially a day for cyclists and pedestrians. Currently there are more than 2.5 million motor cars in Beijing city and due to the fact that this number is soaring, Beijing has become one of the world's ten most severely polluted cities. In China cars are still far from having become popularized and the vast majority of Chinese people rely on bicycles and public buses as their basic mode of transport. However we are still paying the direct price for the rising number of cars as we breathe in their exhaust fumes, we have traffic accidents because of them and we have to put up with cars invading our cycle lanes.”

Translated by Poppy Toland