Hong Kong and other major Chinese cities could buy hundreds of new Routemaster buses, Boris Johnson said today.
Travelling around Hong Kong on a specially imported bus, the Mayor said: “The Chinese desperately need low-emission buses. We should be out here.
“One of the advantages of the new bus is that it is the cleanest, greenest bus in the world. It would be the absolute perfect thing not just for Hong Kong but also for Beijing.”
However, local transport authorities are also understood to be interested in bringing in electric buses, which could eliminate the need for the Routemaster.
Wright Bus, which makes the Routemaster in Northern Ireland, has held talks with officials in Beijing about exporting them. They insisted that the bus, which was criticised over the summer for being too hot, could be adapted for hotter Chinese summers.
That did not stop the Mayor asking for the doors to be left open in balmy Hong Kong and making jokes about bikram yoga.
