Orange-colored public bikes are neatly lined up at the forest park in Pingtan, Fujian province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Pingtan has built a total of 54 public bike rental stations with 2,000 bikes across the city in a move to provide local citizens a cheap, convenient and eco-friendly form of transportation.

People may either apply for public bike cards at designated application offices or simply scan the QR code printed on the bike lockers to register for access to the bikes via their mobile phones.

The first hour of riding is free of charge. Beyond the first hour, there is a one yuan per hour charge with a maximum fee limit of sixteen yuan for a day.

The 54 bike rental stations shall be established around the most populated areas of the city, including the Administrative Service Center, Haitan Ancient City and Pingtan Forest Park.

Li Zhengui, a man in his sixties from Tancheng Town excitedly said, "It really provides us a cheap, convenient and environmentally friendly way to get around. I can't wait to take a ride."

Li Zhengui, an elderly gentleman from Tancheng Town in Pingtan, takes a ride on a public bike. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Sun Haijun, construction manager of Jiangsu Posinda Electronics Technology Co and the lead on Pingtan's public bike project, explained each rental station shall reserve a third of bike parking spaces in advance to allow users to find parking spaces more easily. Users will also able to see which rental stations still have vacant parking spaces from display devices at the stations.

"All the public bikes are of high quality. In order to prevent them from being sabotaged, surveillance cameras shall be installed around the rental stations," introduced Guo Long, an official of the Pingtan bureau of transportation construction.

He also called on all the citizens of the city to protect the infrastructure and then "Pingtan will become more beautiful".

The public bikes are all patterned with the slogan "low carbon and green life in Pingtan, China". [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]