China’s crazy car-straddling elevated bus is just a giant scam, police say

Last August we wrote about a crazy elevated bus that straddles road traffic in the Chinese city of Qinhuangdao near Beijing. In the weeks that followed, we received reports from readers that something about the Transit Elevated Bus (TEB) wasn't quite right: while the vehicle did roll up and down the road a few times, it had since been abandoned in the middle of the street. In December, CNN reported that the TEB had been sitting on its test track in the city for months, gathering dust and causing traffic jams. And now, you will be unsurprised to hear, police in Beijing are saying that it was all a scam.

On Sunday, Beijing's Dongcheng district police bureau announced on Weibo that it had started an investigation into the company behind the TEB project: Huaying Kailai, an online investing platform not unlike Crowdcube. The police say they are holding more than 30 people, including Bai Zhiming who runs both Huaying Kailai and the TEB project.

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