The test vehicle will consist of a single carriage 22 meters long and will be carried out in Qinghuangdao, Hebei.

However, the test run will not be conducted over a two kilometer-stretch of road as previously announced. Instead, the test will be done over a 300 meter countryside road that is straight without any turns, intersections or even traffic lights.

Also known as a “land airbus”, the design for the new vehicle has a capacity for 1,400 passengers and speeds up to 60 kilometers per hour.

Production has already begun on the vehicle in Changzhou, Jiangsu.

Song Youzhou, chief engineer of the straddling bus project, said one of the new vehicles can replace about 40 conventional buses, thereby saving a potential of more than 800 tons of fuel annually and reducing 2,480 tons of carbon emissions.

“The biggest advantage is that the bus will save lots of road space,” said Song.

The post Concept Bus That Straddles Two Lanes of Traffic to Become a Reality in China appeared first on The Nanfang.

Recent news reports say that a woman has been inappropriately touching men she doesn’t know on public buses in Jinnan, Shandong. In one television report, a bus driver said that when he stopped the bus and went to investigate, a male passenger told him that he was molested by the “huggy woman”, as the People’s Daily Online calls her.

The scourge of Jinan has appeared numerous times, and yet these male victims have proven to all be helpless against the person that other news reports call “a girl”. How can she be stopped? Will there be a need for “men only” buses?

At this point, we should point out that China is a country with very conservative values. When victims get molested in China, news reports of the crime will include police descriptions of the victim’s clothes as a way to prove that the arrested pervert is in the wrong, not the victims.

For instance, back in January 2015, Hangzhou police were reported to say that the victims of molestation incident were “dressed within the acceptable parameters of society“.

With “slut-shaming” a thing that continues to happen in China, netizens gleefully satirized the news of a woman taking advantage of men on a public bus. Here’s some of what Chinese netizens had to say about these poor Jinan male victims of sexual harassment:

• “Men need to learn how to protect themselves. They shouldn’t leave the house by themselves. When leaving the house, they should take care not to wear revealing clothes.”
• “You dress so skimpy, and yet you’re not willing to let other people have a touch?”
• “Shameless! Ensnaring women by dressing in so few clothes! Serves you right to have been molested, you should have been raped!”
• “It must be that this man did not practice enough restraint with his choice of clothing.”
• “So what if you got touched? Just by looking, anyone can tell (by your clothes) that you’re not a respectable man. No, you’re one of those types that dress flirtly to attract women, otherwise, why would she choose you to feel up in a bus that is full of other men?”
• “Clearly this male passenger is wearing clothes that are too revealing, otherwise why is she molesting you instead of other people? No doubt, you have not shown any restraint as there something inherent about you that makes you so detestable.”
• “It’s obvious this is not a virtuous man, look at how little he’s wearing! It’s no wonder he’s been sexually harassed. Let’s just see if you’re keep dressing the same way the next time this happens. Don’t blame other people for having molested you; wear more clothes, give yourself a fresh start. As it’s summer, men should all be wearing down winter jackets.”

The post Slut-Shaming in China Gets Turned on its Head with Woman Molesting Men on Public Buses appeared first on The Nanfang.

Linking Changsha South Railway Station with the local airport, the 18.5 kilometer-long maglev railway track is the longest of its kind in the world. Built at a cost of $710 million, more than 90 percent of the railway was built on elevated platforms.

A single trip on the Changsha maglev costs RMB 20 ($3).

Although maglev trains are often associated with high operating and building costs, the Chinese-built trains were touted as being “more environmentally-friendly”.

However, the upgrade comes at a cost as the Chinese-built trains only have a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour. By comparison, the German-made maglev train built in Shanghai in 2004 had a top speed of around 500 kilometers per hour during non-commercial runs.

The discrepancies don’t stop there. According to a statement from operator Hunan Maglev Transport Co, it takes about ten minutes to complete the 18.55-km journey on the Changsha maglev. However, Hindstan Today reported the complete journey requires over 19 minutes to complete with one stop in between.

Maglev trains in China have had a controversial history. A number of other maglev projects were planned after the construction of the $1.2 billion Shanghai maglev, but were ultimately shelved.

The wide-scale adoption of high-speed railways had disrupted earlier plans for a Beijing-Shanghai maglev line and a Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev line. In the case of the latter, local residents protested against the project, citing fears that the maglev train would give off electromagnetic pollution.

The post China’s First Home-Made Maglev Train Begins Trial Run in Changsha appeared first on The Nanfang.

Under the consolidation, commuters will be able to use the same smartcard on all subways and buses in Beijing, Tianjin, Langfang, Zhangjiakou, Baoding, and Shijiazhuang. All public transportation cards for the megacity are expected to be fully consolidated by 2017.

There have been no details on whether or not fares will be streamlined across all jurisdictions, and for now all fares remain the same.

Twenty-three new subway lines are planned for the megacity by 2030, with travel times between cities expected to take from one to two hours.

The post Beijing Transport Card Can Now Be Used in Tianjin and Hebei appeared first on The Nanfang.

The bracelet will be unveiled during a fashion show at the Zhongya Grand Mecure Hotel Shanghai. A lucky 50 of the 150 guests will receive a bracelet for free; the other 100 guests will be able to buy the bracelet at a discounted price. While the price of the bracelet or a photo of what it looks like has yet to be released, you can register to win a ticket for the November 24th unveiling here.

Transport cards are currently available from the Shanghai Metro in a variety of forms that include “mini” and “personalized” as well as being in a watch-form that commuters can wear around their wrist.

The Shanghai Metro has had tremendous problems with many of its commuters not paying fares in recent years. While the Shanghai Metro has looked to publicly shaming fare skippers, one such attempt in October backfired when a woman identified as a fare evader refuted the claim, eventually forcing the Shanghai Metro to rescind the accusation and issue a public apology.

The post Shanghai Metro Introducing “Smart” Fare Bracelets and Fitness Trackers appeared first on The Nanfang.

Look out, Google: while the West is looking to develop driverless cars, China’s development of the technology looks to increase service to commuters through public transportation.

China-based bus manufacturer Yutong has announced a successful run of its driverless bus on city roads. The bus drove 32.6 kilometers from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng under its own control. The autonomous bus identified 26 traffic lights on the road, automatically changed lanes, and was able to overtake vehicles in neighboring lanes through the use of two cameras, four laser radars, one set of millimeter wave radar and an integrated navigation system.

As Yutong deputy chief engineer Tang Wang told the People’s Daily, “You can shift between driverless mode and manual mode” in case the driver needs to take control.

With work starting back in 2012, Yutong says further technological advancements and legal issues must be resolved before we see these buses hit the road.

The post Forget Cars, Google: China is Developing Driverless Buses appeared first on The Nanfang.

“When we started this year, we had about one percent market share. Today, nine months later, we’re looking at about 30 to 35 percent market share,” Kalanick said.

Kalanick spoke of the importance of Uber’s relationship with Baidu: “We can get introductions to the city governments, the government officials that want to shepherd our kind of innovation and our kind of progress into their cities,” said Kalanick.

Kalanick also praised China’s harmony and prosperity: “Progress is something we see the government be incredibly open to, whether it be about more jobs and less pollution, less congestion on the streets, better utilization of infrastructure, that kind of progress always has to be in harmony with stability and that is one of the big things that we partnered with the government on,” said Kalanick.

Uber has had a bit of a rough go during its first year of operations in China. Earlier this year, Uber’s Guanghou and Chengdu offices were raided by government officials within a week of each other. Only last month, a Chengdu woman accused an Uber driver of robbing and sexually molesting her.

Finally, and although Uber was not specifically identified, ride-sharing services were blamed for causing last month’s traffic gridlock in Beijing, reported China Daily. “E-hailing services have changed passenger habits on commuting and travel, and the frequent use of private vehicles has put more pressure on rush-hour traffic,” said Wang Yujing, a data analyst at AutoNavi.

The post Uber Announces Massive Expansion in China appeared first on The Nanfang.

The eastern line will start at a bus terminal in Dongguan – as yet unnamed – and travel through the Huizhou South Railway Station, as well as Shuikou, Longhu and Danshui ending at the Shenzhen East Railway Station in Buji.

The western line will start at Chenjiang Station in Huizhou, and travel through Zhenlong and Xinxu, ending at Longgang District in Shenzhen.

Upon completion of the two lines, eastern Shenzhen will have an impressive eight Metro lines and two intercity railways.

Also in the works are plans for the Pinggu Railway station to serve as a transportation hub for Huizhou, Dongguan and the Longgang District of Shenzhen. Renovations have already begun, and are expected to be completed by year’s end.

The post Pearl River Delta Integration Ramps Up with New Integrated Railway Network appeared first on The Nanfang.

Two people are dead, and another twenty are injured, after a public bus crashed into a pillar underneath an elevated highway in downtown Shanghai on Wednesday. One woman died on the way to hospital, while another was pronounced dead after receiving emergency surgery.

Six people are seriously injured, including a two year-old girl, and the bus driver who was trapped and had to be cut out of his seat. Six passengers remain in intensive care.

The collision occurred at the intersection of Yan’an Road West and Dingxi Road, when a bus seems to have lost control and struck a massive pillar in the center median.

Police say there is no way the bus driver was trying to avoid people on the road, but otherwise say they don’t know what caused the crash. The 50-something driver is a Shanghai native, named Shen, who has 20 years of experience.

Here are more photos of the crash:

The post Two Dead, 20 Injured in Shanghai Bus Crash appeared first on The Nanfang.

The bus driver, named Wang, said the foreigner, dressed completely in white, had fallen off his seat. When a number of elderly passengers tried to help him up, the man began to urinate. Wang stopped the bus to let passengers off, and then called police.

The man had trouble speaking English, but police wouldn’t say if this was due to a language barrier or inebriation.

For whatever reason, examples of expats displaying less than civil behavior frequently occur on buses. Last year a drunk expat was arrested for molesting two women on a bus, while an expat was deported for the same crime. In another case, a foreigner got into a fight with a Chengdu bus driver after missing his stop, grabbing the steering wheel and hitting the bus driver on the head.

Related:

• Rwandan Expat Deported for Allegedly Molesting Bus Passenger
• Foreigner In Chengdu Grabs Steering Wheel of Moving Bus, Assaults Driver
• Foreigner Attacked on Taipei Metro
• Creepy Expat in China Arrested for Molesting Two Women

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