When I take the subway systems, bullet trains and high-quality buses in China, it's hard to believe that most people here were using bicycles and traveling by foot only about 40 years ago. Transportation in China is now faster and more advanced than in most other countries, including the United States.
In America, so much of our culture is based around how much we love cars, but we all know that cars create pollution and frustrating traffic jams. Traveling in China has made me wonder why the U.S. can't also have really good train systems.
Creating new roads and trains is very expensive, but China has the world's largest population, and the economy has been growing fast. Many workers are employed in the transportation industry so that the economy will continue to grow. The quality of living has improved here and China has the fastest growing middle class in the world.
As more people make more money, they are able to buy their own cars. This has created serious pollution problems in China, and the air is sometimes dangerous to breathe in the big cities. Having bicycles that people can drop off anywhere can also create problems where selfish people just throw the bikes wherever they want, creating trash heaps full of broken bicycles like the one in the photo here.
