A recent increase in economic activity and opening up of the country has meant an increase in private transport on one hand, but also an increasing demand on public transport as more and more people are drawn into an upward spiral of economic development. There also is an increasing demand for quality long distance transport, while, though still limited, opportunities for private operators on the huge Chinese market have drawn interest of private investors. Until recently the Chinese market for buses was catered for by a number of large state owned companies, producing large numbers of standardized, fairly basic vehicles. These included city buses, rural buses and long distance buses. Many buses in China use alternative fuels, such as LPG and low-pressure natural gas.
Trolleybuses are also a common sight in many cities.
As already mentioned, local buses tend to be fairly standardized and sometimes the same model is produced by different factories, making it difficult at times to distinguish between models. During the 1990's several foreign bus builders entered into license and technical assistance agreements with Chinese companies, trying to enter this potentially very lucrative market. While Flxible builds a range of local bus types, the various European bus builders have concentrated so far on the long distance coach market. In addition, second hand and new foreign buses started entering China. The city of Canton was the focus of secondhand city bus imports around 1995, including ex Pittsburgh Neoplan AN440, ex Berlin MAN double deckers, and various ex Hong Kong Leyland double deckers.