The city of Taicang in Jiangsu province, along with 14 other cities, joined a city traffic pass union, which was announced at an annual meeting for the 2014 city traffic pass union held in Zhengzhou in Henan province on Oct 30.

The 14 other cities included Zhengzhou, Kunming in Yunnan province, Yixing in Jiangsu province and Jinhua in Zhejiang province. They were the fourth batch of cities to join the city union, following 35 other cities, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang in Liaoning province, Lanzhou in Gansu province, and Nanchang in Jiangxi province. To date, there are 50 participating cities around the country.

The policy will enable Taicang locals to use and recharge their traffic cards in the 49 other cities. Previously, the cards were only accepted in the city where they were issued.

In the future, the policy will add the traffic card function to mobile phones to allow travelers to take their phones for use with buses, metros, public bikes and parking lots.