News, China destroys 500 barbecues to tame Beijing pollution - media

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by botticelli

I think China made the strategic mistaking of encouraging private car ownership to spur the economy. Now everyone is hooked on the car culture and consider taking the subway, which is everywhere, a poor man's choice, just like in the US.

Except China has too many people to afford the car culture.

China also has vast millions of people who are literally too poor to afford a car...

SH, BJ, GZ, SZ, and some other major cities are now requiring people to either enter a lottery or pay a very stiff fee to get the plate for a car. We need to buy a van for my business, but the only guaranteed way to get it in GZ is to make a "donation" to the party of 35,000 RMB. Up until a few months ago, businesses could register a vehicle under their name without entering the lottery, but then lots of wealthy people established offices, dumped their cash into "company" bank accounts (the more money a business has, the more cars they are allowed), and then used that to register their five other MBZ's and Porsches, thus ruining it for everyone.

Because of this, we had planned to register it in her home village in Hunan, where we can pay 400 RMB and walk out with a plate... but, other people are doing this (they own a family home in another city or province, and just register the cars there), so now a quarter or so of the plates you see on the road in GZ are from elsewhere. They plan to implement a "term of stay" on cars into big cities, just like an expat would have for a visa... so, now, unless we can figure something else out, we will probably buy two vans, park one there, drive the other to GZ, and alternate

[Yanagisawa]

Originally Posted by 415_s2k

We need to buy a van for my business, but the only guaranteed way to get it in GZ is to make a "donation" to the party of 35,000 RMB.

I remember it was around 50,000 RMB in Shanghai, back when I registered my car.

Originally Posted by 415_s2k

Because of this, we had planned to register it in her home village in Hunan, where we can pay 400 RMB and walk out with a plate... but, other people are doing this (they own a family home in another city or province, and just register the cars there), so now a quarter or so of the plates you see on the road in GZ are from elsewhere. They plan to implement a "term of stay" on cars into big cities, just like an expat would have for a visa... so, now, unless we can figure something else out, we will probably buy two vans, park one there, drive the other to GZ, and alternate

Let us not look down on CCP. They always invent something new to make themselves convenient.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by 415_s2k

Because of this, we had planned to register it in her home village in Hunan, where we can pay 400 RMB and walk out with a plate... but, other people are doing this (they own a family home in another city or province, and just register the cars there), so now a quarter or so of the plates you see on the road in GZ are from elsewhere. They plan to implement a "term of stay" on cars into big cities, just like an expat would have for a visa... so, now, unless we can figure something else out, we will probably buy two vans, park one there, drive the other to GZ, and alternate

My understanding is that the Shanghai municipality has restricted the entry of vehicles with plates registered outside Shanghai to off hours, in order to control traffic, and to put a crimp in the practice of some Shanghai residents doing a "work-around" on the cost and availability of Shanghai vehicle registrations by registering their cars outside the city.

[Amercity]

For a moment i thought this was president obama's enviormentalist cult .