The 2008 world financial crisis has not stopped China’s steady economic growth, and China's urbanization process remains accelerating. By the end of 2008, the urbanization rate has reached 45.7%. Amongst 655 Chinese cities, there are 118 with a population exceeding 1 million people and 39 with a population of more than 2 million people. It is estimated that the urbanization rate will reach 50% by 2015. The demand for urban travel is hiking at an unprecedented rate, however, China's currently planned urban public transport system is not able to sustain the fast-paced development of a city.

  It is not likely for the rail transit to become the backbone of the urban public transport in the foreseeable future because of its limited scale and density-as large investments are required for its development. As the mainstay in the urban public transport sector, the current bus system is not able to meet the demands in big cities. The annually growing travel has caused the reduction in the operational speed of buses, from 10-14 km/h to 4-11 km/h. The ubiquitous problems faced by the current system-crowdedness, inefficiency, pollution and the growing oil price, together with the annually increasing vehicle safety accidents, are restraining the sustainable development of Chinese cities.

  In 2009, there were more than 350,000 buses in operation in China, and the length of China’s total bus networks almost reached 160, 000 kilometers, with an annual patronage of 46.7 billion people. In order to effectively ease the urban traffic congestion caused by the hiking population, many Chinese cities have started to introduce the intelligent public transport system to manage the daily operation of city buses. Ten Chinese cities including Beijing, Hangzhou and Hefei currently operate bus rapid transit (BRT) systems, and many other large cities are currently developing BRT systems, including Jinan, Xi'an, Shenzhen and Changzhou.

  The 2010 China City Bus Summit is being organized by the Urban Public Transport Society (UPTS) of the China Civil Engineering Society. The UPTS has 3 major goals for the development of China's urban transport systems that will be explored at the conference:   1. accelerating the development of intelligent public transport system through promoting the application of information technologies in the urban public transport sector   2. encouraging the development and application of green fuel and new energy   3. ensuring the safe operations of city buses.

  The Summit is expected to attract approximately 200 senior executives from relevant Chinese government agencies, city bus operators, vehicle manufacturers and equipment and technology suppliers. It is also expected to draw attendance from more than 30 reputable domestic and international city bus industry leaders, who will explore the theme of the Summit—‘Developing Safe, Green and Efficient Buses for the Future’, through discussions on three focus areas—application of information technologies, application of energy-saving technologies and city bus safety and security. The summit will also facilitate high level networking opportunities for you and your associates with significant government and industry decision makers.