Beijing drivers head to Hebei for license plates
- Source: Global Times
- [08:40 March 25 2011]
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By Fang Yunyu
Nearly 1,000 Beijing residents this year have applied for new car license plates in Langfang, a city in nearby Hebei Province, to circumvent the capital's car registration lottery, according to the Langfang Municipal Bureau of Taxation Thursday.
"Around 150 new drivers come to register for plates every day, and Beijingers have accounted for 10 percent since mid-January," Sun Jinguo, spokesman of Langfang Vehicle Purchase Tax Service Hall, told the Global Times.
The rush of Beijing car owners to Langfang, a city about 60 kilometers southeast of the capital, is a result of the license plate lottery, a policy in place since January 1 as a strategy to ease traffic congestion by limiting the increasing number of new cars on the road.
In January, 210,178 drivers took part in the lottery for 17,600 license plates, which amounts to nearly 12 to 1 odds. In February the chances of winning decreased to almost 17 to 1, and it is expected that the odds will continue to decrease.
As a result, some are finding other ways to legally register their car.
"I just want to have a car that I can drive this year. I'm not willing to wait to win the lottery," a Beijing woman surnamed Fu who registered her car in Zhuozhou, Hebei Province, told the Beijing Morning Post.
She said, since her home is outside the Sixth Ring Road, the ban of non-locally registered cars from driving within the Fifth Ring Road during rush hours would not affect her.
Currently only 240,000 new cars are allowed to have Beijing car plates this year. In 2010, more than 800,000 new cars were sold in the city, bringing the city's total number of automobiles to nearly 5 million, according to official statistics.
