China’s Transport Revolution

Urban air pollution in China has reached crisis levels and studies estimate it kills more than a million people in the country each year. 

Since the 1980s, Shenzhen has grown from being little more than a farming community to a booming metropolis with more than 11 million inhabitants, 150 skyscrapers and more than three million cars.  

Here, the new energy vehicle industry is booming. By September of this year, all of Shenzhen’s buses will be fully electric. Meanwhile, residents are restricted access to new licence plates for cars running on fossil fuels and nudged to buy hybrid or electric ones through government subsidies.  

“When I was small we played outside,” says Lu Dongpeng. “Since then the air got so much worse that children can’t play outside because their parents won’t let them.” Lu saw so much potential in the electric car market that he opened his own dealership and repair shop in July 2016.

And there’s an even more environmentally friendly way of getting around in Shenzhen: through its “dockless” city cycles. 

Stephanie Wong visits Shenzhen to learn more about how the city is cleaning up its transport.