Cars, cars and more cars

Rumors that Beijing was going to introduce a cap on car registration or sales have been quashed with an announcement on Wednesday that the city government would do no such thing.

The deputy head and spokesman of the commission justified the decision not to impose a limit on the grounds of a need to maintain the long-term development of the country's auto industry and sustain general economic growth.

Once again the environment is coming second when this country just think about economic growth. So typical todays China - just think about today and forget about "tomorrow" because YOU will not be there....

Rumors of an imminent introduction of some kind of limit on car sales or registration led to a spike in car sales as Beijingers attempted to beat the introduction of the new regulations. So when the rest of China's auto industry was witnessing a drop of sales up to 30% across the country, the Beijing market remained strong.

Reactions to the announcement are mixed, with many drivers already frustrated by the complex rules of the new car regulation along with automakers and potential car buyers seem relieved that the government has not decided to meddle any further.
However, other residents who have enjoyed the benefits of the Olympic odd-even ban - according to reports it helped to eliminate 120,000 tons of pollutants (about 63 percent of total vehicular pollutant emissions) and has given Beijing the best air quality results it has experienced in 8 years - not to mention less congested roads - think that the government has sacrificed the quality of life of Beijingers for the good of the economy.

Many residents are not convinced that the city's decision to forgo a limit on car numbers and instead to focus on

- expanding the public transport system
- raising parking fees in downtown Beijing
- offering free bike hire
and doing away with fuel sudsidies will be enought.

At present there are close to 3.4 million cars clogging Beijing's streets and approximately 1,200 new vehicles appear on the road everyday.
It's estimated that this number will soon reach 4 million.

Olympic after-play

A man was sentenced to two and a half years in jail and a fine of 447,000 yuan (about 65,000 U.S. dollars) for illegal scalping of more than 500 Olympic tickets.
It is the biggest Olympic ticket scalping case trialed in Beijing so far. The 41-year-old man, agreed to buy Olympic tickets for two companies in Beijing and Guangzhou at prices 50 percent to60 percent higher than the official ones, according to the Xicheng District People's Court.

He booked 527 Olympic tickets with 230,000 yuan (about 34,000 U.S. dollars) through the online ticketing system, using 2,500 pieces of identity information illegally obtained through his friend's construction company and other means, the court said. He was arrested by police on May 13 this year. Organizers of the Beijing Olympics had repeatedly warned that "resale of Olympic tickets for profit is illegal" and vowed to "support the authorities to crack down on suspected illegal transactions."

Police had warned anyone found scalping tickets would face penalties, which in some cases could be 10 to 15 days in detention.

On the way from the Subway to the Security check in the Olympic village You could every day see these "scalpers" quite open selling tickets to the games - with the police just a small distance away not care to much about the "scalpers"
But, some of them was apperantly "crossing the line".....

Enjoying Your breakfast?

It's getting harder and harder to enjoy a good breakfast in Beijing. First it was the milk - coffee drinkers across the city were forced to try and remember which brands were safe to drink, not to mention the sleepless nights that cereal eaters and pancake flippers had to endure.
Next came the maggots in the oranges - no more fresh juice for some and half price for Orange juice during a longer periode in the shops.


Finally, the discovery of melamine-tainted “problem eggs" in Hong Kong and spread of the scandal to the mainland, has left fans of a good ham and eggs worried about how much melamine they'll be ingesting with all that heart-clogging cholesterol.
However, the price of eggs in Beijing has already dropped 10% in two days.


So, what will be next? This week we see some ugly pictures of larvae-eggs in the cream of some of the most popular Bisquits. Yesterday JinkeLong (our ICA) had cat the price to half and You also got a drinking glass if You but two.....