The city of Nantong, East China’s Jiangsu province, launched a theme activity on Sept 22 – World Car Free Day – with the aim of promoting public and green transportation.

The activity, organized by the city’s traffic and transportation office and bus company, invited volunteers to distribute bus guide pamphlets and questionnaires to passengers.

To implement the strategy of “giving priority to buses”, Nantong has increased by six the number of bus lines and optimized 15 lines this year, and now there are 858 buses, 275 of which are new energy buses, according to Lu Yan, director of the transportation and service office of the city bus company.

Since Nantong was selected as a promotion city for new energy buses last year, the number of electric buses is expected to reach 300 by 2015 and the new energy buses will become the major means of transportation for green travel, said Zhu Jian, head of the city’s traffic and transportation office.