University of Macao to encourage use of bikes inside new campus

MACAO, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The new campus of University of Macao (UM) will be designed in a way that will facilitate the use of bicycles and walking, the Macao Post Daily reported on Tuesday, quoting UM officials as saying.

The residences and offices in the new campus will be built no more than 300 meters away from the seminar rooms with the aim to encourage students and teachers to walk and ride bicycles so as to reduce the use of cars on campus, the daily quoted Lai Iat Long, UM vice rector, as saying. Push bikes were also planned to be provided to the students and teachers inside the campus.

UM's new campus, covering an area of just over one square kilometer, will be located on Hengqin Island, which is a part of China's southern province Guangdong. The site of the new campus is just across a narrow water channel from Macao Special Administrative Region, according to the information from the UM.

The new campus will be 20 times larger than UM' s current one in Macao, with a minimum accommodation capacity of 10,000 students.

Aside from reducing car use, the future campus will be equipped with renewable resources and water and power saving systems as a means of protecting the environment, the vice rector also said.