Chinaman beats rush hour traffic on horseback

A Chinese businessman rides a horse to beat rush hour traffic.

He Yanqing - a property entrepreneur with cars worth several hundred thousand pounds in his garage at home - has shed 20 minutes off his previous commuting time of 40 minutes by riding the animal, as opposed to driving his motor to the office in the northwestern city of Xianyang, China.

He told Shaanxi Satellite Television: "Riding a horse to work has many advantages. It keeps me fit, has low carbon dioxide emissions, avoids traffic jams, parking fines, speeding tickets and my horse, unlike the car, has no need for an annual examination [MoT]."

He revealed the horse has set him back about £2,000 to buy and around £50 a month to feed.

Local government figures show the number of cars in the city of five million people is growing at a rate 200 per day.