自行车，又称脚踏车或单车，通常是二轮的小型陆上车辆。人骑上车后，以脚踩踏板为动力，是绿色环保的交通工具。

Thousands of orange bicycles have disappeared from the streets of Beijing this winter since the recent closure of Fangzhou Bicycle-Lending Company.

A bicycle watchman at one of the company's former rental outlets says few customers were borrowing bikes.

"Those bikes were sold at very low prices as iron junk. I only see about 10 people renting from here every month. The bikes were totally rusted."

Fangzhou started bikes renting five years ago. Its rental outlets lined up the bikes on sidewalks along main roads, hoping to target tourists and especially visitors during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But the company lost about 20-million yuan mainly because of a lack of customers. Other bike rental companies have also faced similar problems.

Some city residents say they don't want to take the trouble to rent bikes from these outlets.

"It's not convenient at all. After you use it, you have to come to the same outlet to return it."

"You've got to provide a 180-yuan cash deposit first, and there aren't enough places for you to return the bikes."

But now with support from the government, some former employees of the Fangzhou Company have reorganized the whole team and established a new company called Fangzhou Green Trip. They will set up about 300 outlets that provide bike rental and return services along subway lines in Beijing by the end of this year. This time, they are using a computerized management system to provide more convenient services. Customers just need to press their public transportation IC cards against the screen of the booth to get a bike. They will not have to pay any charges within the first hour of use. The new company has also attracted some commercial funds by painting advertisements on the bikes and booths. The bikes' front baskets and seats and the automatic rental booths are all covered by colorful logos.

Deng Huizhong, the project manager, says the company already has already added some innovative ideas into the business.

"The bicycle has multiple intellectual property patents, and we also have more newly designed bicycle accessories coming out very soon."

According to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, the number of people using public transport has risen in recent years. But the proportion of cyclists has declined to 20 percent from 30 percent five years ago. A separate development plan released by the commission on its official website in August encouraged residents to travel "green" for the next five years.

Professor Shi Tong from the Traffic and Communications Research Center at Tsinghua University in Beijing doubt whether the bike renting business can prosper.

"It's quite necessary for the government to provide special support for green transportation. But the problem is whether such support can provoke more market demand in this area."

Shi Tong says he believes Beijing's overall facilities for renting and riding bikes is far from mature. Currently, many bike lanes along the main roads are overcrowded with automobiles, which has affected cyclists. But whether the computerized rental service can attract more customers remains to be seen.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.

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