Liu Minxia

THE world's first solar taxi touring the five continents arrived in Shenzhen on Wednesday, as part of a journey to raise environmental awareness.

Starting the world tour July 3, 2007, in Lucerne, Switzerland, the two-seater solar taxi is scheduled to cover 50 countries on five continents in 18 months. China is the 25th stop on the journey and Shenzhen was the third stop in China after Kunming, Yunnan Province, and Guangzhou.

Swiss adventurer Louis Palmer, the inventor and driver of the solar taxi, said he drove the three-wheeler to Shenzhen on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway. "We are not always allowed on highways," Palmer said. The car has a long trailer equipped with high-efficiency solar cells which generate the energy to power the vehicle which can travel at a maximum speed of 90 km an hour.

In Shenzhen, Palmer and his team visited a battery manufacturer and reached a preliminary agreement to cooperate in the future to produce environmentally friendly cars.

The team was also warmly received by the city government. Huang Jinkui, vice secretary general of the Shenzhen Municipal Government, was invited to be the first local passenger. He said the city government was dedicated to the use of solar power.

In early 2006, the Shenzhen government put in place an energy-saving regulation, which will require half the new buildings to use solar energy by 2010.

Palmer's solar taxi will pass through Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, finally visiting Shanghai and Beijing.

The taxi was developed by four Swiss technical universities. Leading Swiss technological companies provided most of the materials for the car. It cost about 60,000 yuan (US$8,587) to build.

However, "not all countries are excited about the new invention," Palmer said. "We waited for three weeks on the border of Saudi Arabia before we got a visa."

When the taxi arrived in Bali, Indonesia, in December, it happened that the United Nations Climate Change Conference was being held. The vehicle was designated the official taxi for the conference and ministers and mayors of different countries used the vehicle, Palmer said.

The most romantic leg of the journey was in Germany. "A German couple had waited until we arrived to get married in the solar taxi," Palmer said.