Want to tour Beijing? Rent a bike. The Olympic city plans to put 50,000 bicycles for rent across the city ahead of the Games to curb pollution and ease congestion.

Brand new bikes will be available at 230 outlets close to subway stations, commercial districts, Olympic venues, hotels and office buildings as well as in big communities, according to a "rent a bike" program carried out by Beijing Bicycle Rental Services, a Beijing-based company.

The company has so far put 5,000 bikes for rent at 30 franchise outlets close to the Beijing Workers Stadium, the Drum Tower, the Forbidden City and the Xidan commercial street, according to the company's Website.

Before next August, the network will be expanded to cover major communities and all Olympic venues, said Wang Yong, general manager of Beijing Bicycle Rental Services.

"Organizations and individuals are welcome to join our service network for free, as long as they can provide an area about the size of one parking space."

Wang said his company would provide all the bikes for rent, and franchise outlets would get one yuan (13 US cents) a day for each bike they operate as running costs.

"The outlets will also get profit sharing at the end of each month, based on their own business incomes," he said. "Not every outlet can make a profit, as people can rent a bike at one outlet and drop it somewhere else close to their destinations."

To embrace next year's Olympic Games, Beijing, a city with three million motor vehicles and more than four million drivers, is working all-out to ease congestion and curb pollution.

Yesterday was the last day of Beijing's four-day experiment to test whether pulling 1.3 million cars off its roads each day would prove effective in reducing air pollution during the Games.

Drivers with even-numbered license plates, excluding taxis, buses and emergency vehicles, were told to stay off the roads on Friday and Sunday or face fines. Odd-numbered cars were banned on Saturday and yesterday.

Experts say pulling 1.3 million motor vehicles off the roads in Beijing each day can reduce exhaust emissions by 40 percent.

Though Beijing's sky remained mostly gray and misty as a result of stuffy, humid late summer weather, nearly everyone felt the roads were less busy. "Going to work by bus took me only 15 minutes," said Zhang Jianguo, a government employee. "Driving took almost the same time."