China Exclusive: 'Urban diseases' challenge prospect of 'beautiful China'

BEIJING, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Liu Huixuan was excited when she was offered an internship in Beijing, but after arriving she soon found herself fatigued as a commuter in the metropolis.

Every morning, it takes her more than one hour from where she lives, her friends' home in Chaoyang District, to work in downtown by subway.

"I have to wait before eventually squeezing myself into a train," said the intern.

Liu, a senior university student in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, planned to work in Beijing after graduating, but the "horrible" traffic has puzzled her.

"If I take bus, it will take much longer because of the traffic jams," she said.

According to government figures, Beijing has a population of more than 20 million in a 16,400-square-km area, and over 79.5 percent of them live in the urban area. Overcrowding has brought a series of problems to the city, such as traffic jams.

The number of cars registered in the Chinese capital has passed 5.1 million, and it is still rising.

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