A group of foreigners, accompanied by some chinese students, rode bicycles on the morning of July 9 to the square in front of the Favorview Palace residential community. They were officers from foreign consulates in GuangZhou who were promoting low-carbon lifestyles to local residents.

The promotion was part of the 2010 Guangdong Energy Conservation Promotion Week events and the first involvement of foreign consular officers in the province’s energy conservation promotion campaign.

“In a certain week, I went to and from work Monday through Friday using five different modes of transportation,” said Tormod C. Eudresen, consul-general of Norway in Guangzhou, who took part in the promotion. As an advocate of low-carbon lifestyles, Mr. Eudresen said the promotion was a significant event in improving public awareness and strengthening Guangdong’s collaboration with foreign countries in energy conservation.

Many officers from foreign consulates in Guangzhou promoted low-carbon lifestyles on bicycles.

“Cycling is very common in foreign countries and part and parcel of urban life,” a staff member from the Consulate-General of the Netherlands in Guangzhou was quoted as saying.

Six officers from the Consulate-General of the United Kingdom joined the cycling event to promote eco-friendly transportation.

(Translated by Guangzhou Association of Foreign Affairs Translators)