CYCLING is seen as the answer to the terrible pollution and traffic problems in Beijing.

Municipal officials want to boost the number of cyclists by 25 per cent during the next five-year plan, the state media reported.

The modern passion for cars has meant that pollution has risen to an almighty high on the streets.

The Age reported that last year China overtook the US as the world’s biggest car market: about a million new vehicles a month pour on to the roads.

Since the 2008 Olympics, there have been revamped rules only to drive on certain days. But this has still failed to ease the congestion that has been an ongoing problem for years.

The Xinhua news agency said the Government hoped to improve the infrastructure for cyclists, including restored bicycle lanes and new rental programs providing 50,000 bikes for hire by 2015.

However, locals were sceptic about bicycles being the answer.

”Fewer and fewer of my friends ride bicycles, but the interesting thing is they don’t drive cars either,” Jiamin Zhao told The Age, an internet entrepreneur who still cycles his child to school each morning