Beijing had 3.3 million new cars in 2014 and the city's car ownership increased by almost 160 percent in the 10 years between 2004 and 2014. In the meantime, the portion of public transport among all travel means increased from 29.4 percent to 48 percent.

Traffic congestion, a well-known urban woe accompanying urbanization, is obviously not unique in Beijing.

Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen had average commutes of almost 90 minutes in 2014, with residents of Tianjin, Nanjing, Shenyang and Chongqing spending more than 65 minutes traveling from home to work in the same year.

In IBM's 2011 Global Commuter Pain Survey, Beijing was named the city with the worst commuting conditions in the world, according to online magazine Smartplanet. Metropolises such as New York, Paris or Los Angeles, didn't even make the top 10.