NRDC report evaluates most Chinese cities ‘walkable’

[Photo: from VCG]

A latest report shows 95% of Chinese cities score highly on measures of walkability, how easy it is for pedestrians to get around during their daily lives.

The China Urban Walkability Report was released on Friday by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an international nonprofit environmental organization. The report evaluated street walkability in 287 Chinese cities. The result showed that 95% of cities score 60 points or more out of a possible 100, meaning that they considered the majority of Chinese cities to be "somewhat walkable" or "very walkable".

The only city in China that scored above 90 points was Bazhong City in Sichuan Province. Xiamen topped the list of 36 capital and major cities, with a score of 83.3 points. Out of the 36 capital and major cities, 12 cities scored above 80 points.

When grouped by population size, 6 out of the 12 cities with a population of 5 million people or more exceeded 80 points. Within this group, the city with the highest score was Shantou, followed by Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai.

The report was jointly conducted by Natural Resources Defense Council, School of Architecture in Tsinghua University and Beijing City Lab. 

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(News source: ecns.cn)