The Beijing metropolitan area has a population of over 19 million. The traffic problems are enormous and this is accompanied by considerable air pollution. The fact that it has improved considerably in recent years is due not least to the large-scale expansion of the public transport network. The speed at which new metro lines are being built is impressive not only in Beijing, but also in various other places in the country. In the capital, however, residents and visitors not only currently have 26 metro lines of different types at their disposal, but also a dense network of bus lines that serve all districts.
More than 12,000 buses are available for this purpose, a significant proportion of which are now purely electrically powered. In the entire area within the 3rd ring road, buses with combustion engines are already the exception.
