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CHANGING CURRENTS
20 YEARS of REFLECTIONS
BIRDS IN CHINA - PHOTOS
CYCLING to XANADU
THE CHINESE DREAM
CHINESE NEW YEAR ADS
The MEDIUM, the MESSAGE and the SAUSAGE DOG
ANYONE FOR TENNIS?
VIEWS FROM ABOARD THE CHINA EXPRESS:
1 Zola and Retail Marketing
2 Playing the Waiting Game
3 Beware the Ides of March
4 The county not on a map
5 Chinese Chess in Beijing
6 Build it and They'll Come
7 Riding the Water Dragon
8 The Best of Both Worlds
9 Storming the Great Wall
10 Welcome to the Wangba
11 The Catcher in the Rice
12 The Marriage Business
13 The Crouching Dragon
14 Counting the Numbers
15 A Century of Migration
16 Shooting for the Stars
17 Rise of Yorkshire Puds
18 Harry Potter in Beijing
19 Standing Out in China
20 Self-pandactualisation
21 Strolling on the Moon
22 Tea with the Brothers
23 Animated Guangzhou
24 Trouble on the Farms
25 Christmas in Haerbin
26 Dave pops into Tesco
27 A Breath of Fresh Air
28 The Boys from Brazil
29 Rolls-Royce on a roll
30 The Great Exhibition
31 Spreading the Word
32 On Top of the World
33 Moonlight Madness
34 Beijing's Wild West
35 Avatar vs Confucius
36 Brand Ambassadors
37 Inspiring Adventure
38 China's Sweet Spot
39 Spinning the Wheel
40 Winter Wonderland
41 The End of the Sky
42 Ticket to Ride High
43 Turning the Corner
44 Trouble in Toytown
45 Watch with Mother
46 Red-crowned Alert
47 In a Barbie World
48 Domestic Arrivals
49 Tale of Two Taxis
50 Land of Extremes
51 Of 'Mice' and Men
52 Tour of the South
53 Brooding Clouds?
54 The Nabang Test
55 Guanxi Building
56 Apple Blossoms
57 New Romantics
58 The Rose Seller
59 Rural Shanghai
60 Forbidden Fruit
61 Exotic Flavours
62 Picking up Pace
63 New Year, 2008
64 Shedding Tiers
65 Olympic Prince
66 London Calling
67 A Soulful Song
68 Paradise Lost?
69 Brandopolises
70 Red, red wine
71 Finding Nemo
72 Rogue Dealer
73 Juicy Carrots
74 Bad Air Days
75 Golden Week
76 Master Class
77 Noodle Wars
78 Yes We Can!
79 Mr Blue Sky
80 Keep Riding
81 Wise Words
82 Hair Today
83 Easy Rider
84 Aftershock
85 Bread vans
86 Pick a card
87 The 60th
88 Ox Tales
CHARTS
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2001 to 2007
BIRDING in CHINA
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Bad Air Days

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Last day of "Olympic rules" on the 4th ring and the first work-day of no restrictions (China Daily)

21 days.  That’s the timeframe between the ending of the two-month long traffic restrictions – imposed to improve air quality during the Olympics – and the start of a new regime of controls.  From today, car owners will “take turns” to leave their cars at home for one day a week: Those whose number plates end with 1 or 6 are forbidden from going within the 5th ring road on Mondays; 2 or 7-ending licence plate-holders will have to make alternative arrangements on Tuesdays; 3 or 8-holders on Wednesdays; 4 or 9ers on Thursdays; and those with the 5 or 0 as a last number will find it more difficult getting back home from work on Friday evenings. 

 

  The new restrictions – that will be imposed for a six-month “trial period” – don’t apply during the weekends, but that’s not much comfort for the millions of drivers who depend on their vehicle for getting to and from work.  The new restrictions have “sparked an outcry from car owners, many of whom complain it is ‘unfair’”, reports Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency; which goes on to say that, of the online comments posted by 2,400 people on Internet-portal Sina.com within two hours of the announcement of the new ban, “very few postings were supportive of the ban”.  Or, in other words, except for a few non-drivers who bothered to write in, everyone is hopping mad.         

 

The traffic flow of negative online comments will undoubtedly become far heavier if the threatened supplementary regulations are also enforced.  Beijing's environmental protection bureau's deputy director Du Shaozhong told the China Daily that “the city will adopt stricter vehicular restrictions during periods of heavy air pollution”.  An air pollution index of 300 or more is the trigger, at which point Beijingers will be given two days notice of the return to the Olympic-period’s odd/even number plate rule, which reduces the number of private cars by 50 per cent (see photo).

 

Guo Jifu, director of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Development Research Centre, estimates that car numbers in Beijing will rise by two million in the next four years – to 5.4 million cars.  Assuming that the recent slowdown in car sales doesn’t continue, and the figure quoted by Mr Guo turns out to be correct, it’s hard to imagine that things will ever get any better for Beijing’s beleaguered car owners. 

 

  As average income increases and as more people move to the suburbs, car sales are bound to follow the same upward curves.


  Expect, then, to see more measures imposed that are designed to curb usage (and reduce demand).  The Beijing motorist is likely to face higher car taxes; more expensive fuel; more restrictions on when and where he or she can drive; more bus-lanes; higher city-centre parking fees; and even a congestion charge.  No doubt that the governments – and car-owners – of other cities with similar problems will be watching closely.

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"I dream of having a car that I can drive on a Friday"