Bicycles of Mobike and Ofo, two major bike-sharing service providers in China, are parked outside a park in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. [Photo/China Daily]

China imposes some of the world’s toughest driving restrictions for cars, and now the checks and controls are expanding to the bicycle-sharing industry.

Police in Shenzhen said over the weekend that they are considering restrictions on the use of shared bikes, especially during holidays, to prevent road congestion and public disorder.

Police said that about 520,000 bikes have been put on the streets in the city in the year since bike sharing began.

A growing number of people are taking the colorful two-wheelers to work or using them for recreation, which has brought some challenges. Over the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday earlier this month, for example, paths at a local park became seriously clogged with bikes, while careless parking of shared bikes often blocks traffic.

The police are partnering with bike-sharing companies to monitor the number of bikes in designated areas. Under the plan, if the accumulation of bikes in an area hits a certain number, a warning system will be activated that prohibits bikes from entering, with cyclists notified via a mobile app.

A limit on the number of bikes will be also enforced, along with temporary bans in certain public places during peak seasons.

Bike-sharing companies should be held responsible if their negligence leads to serious accidents, the police said. The companies have been ordered to report to police the number of bikes to be released in key areas before holidays.

The bicycle-sharing industry took off in China about two years ago when startups set out to use internet technology to transform the mobility sector.

A rider typically pays about 1 yuan ($0.15) an hour after unlocking a bicycle with a mobile app. The bike can be dropped off anywhere for the next user. Mobike,  Ofo and Bluegogo are the major service providers.

According to analysis by a Beijing think tank, 18.86 million people in China used a shared bicycle at least once last year. The number is expected to hit 50 million this year, which will bring new headaches for urban management－including random parking.

On Tuesday, Shanghai’s downtown Huangpu district banned the riding or parking of bicycles, whether private or rented, in five busy commercial areas, including the Bund and Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street. On another 22 roads－mostly popular commercial streets without bicycle lanes－bikes can be parked but not ridden, according to the district government.

“Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” attracts readers at the London Book Fair in this May 3, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

After its debut in Thailand, Cambodia and Pakistan, “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” has become a top seller and been well-received among local officials and scholars, with many hailing the value of the book for both its language and its outreach.

The book, which outlines the political ideas of the top leadership in China, has been released in Thai, Khmer and Urdu versions in the respective capitals of the three countries in the past two weeks.

A Thai publisher sold more than 2,000 copies of the book in a single day after its launch in Bangkok on April 7, with many readers inquiring on social media about ways to purchase the book, Xinhua reported.

Thai Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, who had read the book, said it was written in beautiful language, even though it was not in the form of a novel or essays.

“I believe that to be a great leader, one has to be a good reader, good thinker, good speaker, good writer and good doer, and I found President Xi has achieved all of them after I finished reading this book,” he said.

In Phnom Penh, more than 700 officials, scholars and entrepreneurs, including Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and five deputy prime ministers, attended the launching ceremony for the book on April 11.

Chea Munyrith, director of the Confucius Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said publishing a Khmer version will enable the Cambodian people to better learn about China and Xi himself.

Chea, who assisted in the translation of the book into Khmer, said it offers insights for government officials and scholars on how to properly manage a country.

“That is why it is important for the officials, students and scholars in Cambodia to read through the book,” he said.

At the launching ceremony of the Urdu edition of the book in Islamabad on Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the book is as much about the contemporary world as it is about China.

“What has touched me most is that this book is not just about high-level politics, but also about moving stories of common people, their lives and inspirations about hard work and family values,” he said.

“This book is as much about the Chinese Dream as it is about the global dream to have a peaceful, harmonious and connected world,” he added.

Building a community of shared destiny is an important concept embodied in Xi’s thoughts on governance of the nation, said Jiang Jianguo, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and minister of the State Council Information Office.

“And this concept has been included in the resolutions passed by United Nations organizations,” he said at the launching ceremony of the book in Islamabad on Friday.

HIV test kits are sold in vending machine. [chinanews.com]

Students at a Chinese university woke up yesterday to find a surprising new addition in their vending machine. On sale alongside instant noodles and soft drinks were HIV test kits.

Harbin Medical University is the second university in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province to sell the kits in a vending machine.

It is part of a program launched by the Chinese Association of STD and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control to address HIV transmission on campus.

Nine such vending machines had been installed in five universities across the country by the end of 2016, the association says.

The machine is designed with a deposit drawer, but looks just like any other, and alongside the kits, sells snacks, cup noodles, and drinks.

A kit is sold at a discounted 30 yuan (US$4.38), compared to 286 yuan (US$41.55) on the market.

Zhao Donghui, an HIV specialist with the province’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said a test-taker would buy the kit, collect his urine sample, and drop it back into the deposit drawer.

Staff at the center will be notified by a sensor wired to the drawer. They retrieve the sample, do the test, and post it online.

Only the test taker can view the results once they log on the center’s website and enter a specific code number, Zhao said.

“The whole process is anonymous,” he added.

China had 654,000 people living with HIV/AIDS at the end of September, according to official figures.

Sexual transmission accounted for 94 percent of the 96,000 new cases reported in the nine months to September last year, it said. Students and retirees were the two groups where infection rose most rapidly.

More than 2,320 students aged between 15 to 24 tested positive, more than four times the figure in 2010, it added.

The number of HIV tests in China grew from 60 million in 2010 to 140 million in 2015.

“We can’t eliminate the virus for now, but at least we can prevent it from spreading,” said Wang Mengjiao, a student at Harbin Medical University. “For that purpose, it is important to take part in voluntary testing.”

Shanghai’s first helicopter airport will be built at the former Longhua Airport in Xuhui District by early 2019, officials said yesterday.

Longhua Helicopter Airport will cover 30,000 square meters at the riverside area of Xuhui and will have aprons and hangers for 21 helicopters.

Terminal buildings, an air traffic control tower and helicopter maintenance facilities will be built.

The airport would mainly serve helicopters used by urban management and for emergency rescues, said Zhou Ming, secretary general manager of the airport said.

It is estimated that more than 4,000 helicopters would take off and land at the airport by 2020. In peak periods, three helicopters would take off or land hourly, he said.

“The helipad can also serve some commercial intercity flying, but sightseeing services will be forbidden,” Zhou said.

Longhua Airport was built in 1917 for both civil and military use. By 1935, it was said to be the biggest airport in the Far East. The airport was later used only for pilot training and airships because its central location meant it was no longer suitable for fixed-wing take-offs and landings.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China will establish an East China General Aviation Service Center by 2018 in an office building beside the airport.

“The center will offer one-stop services for flying routes applications and other general aviation services,” said Bao Weiguo, the general manager with the airport. Currently, helicopters and business jets owners had to apply to fly at government bodies in different places.

The center will also open an online application platform to the applicants in future to save time and cost for clients, Bao said.

Meanwhile, Xuhui District government plans to turn one of the former Longhua Airport’s two runways into a park featuring bicycle lanes and jogging tracks.

The runway park on Yunjin Road, which runs along the west bank of Huangpu River, will have trees, flowers and an artificial creek. Some relics will be kept to serve as reminder of the park’s aviation heritage, the district government said.

China’s first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 is to be launched into space between April 20 and 24, according to the office of China’s manned space program.

The cargo spacecraft was transferred with a Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket from the testing center to the launch zone in Wenchang, southern China’s Hainan Province, according to a statement from the office Monday.

The transfer took 2.5 hours.

“The completion of the transfer signals the Tianzhou-1 mission has entered its launching stage,” the statement said.

Technicians have performed several tests during the assembling of the spacecraft and rocket since February.

In the following days, technicians will continue testing the spacecraft and rocket, and inject fuel before the launch, it said.

Tianzhou-1 is the first cargo ship independently developed by the country. It is expected to dock with the orbiting Tiangong-2 space lab and conduct in-orbit refueling.

The cargo spacecraft will also carry out space experiments, including one on non-Newtonian gravitation, before falling back to earth.