"But officer....I just stopped for some Chunghuas!"
Parking tickets may be a global scourge. But in Shanghai they're just another way the government sticks it to the growing load of car owners. In an attempt to control escalating pollution and traffic nightmares caused by China's surging love affair with the automobile, the city has imposed strict limits on the number of licenses it will issue. To register a vehicle in the first place, one must bid for a basic plate in a monthly auction. The city offers only several thousand plates each time and with some 25,000 residents bidding, prices have skyrocketed. Winners pay up to 50,000 yuan ($7700) for their tags. That's the cost of a compact sedan. How to say, "That's crazy talk" in Chinese?
Photos by Federico Darwish.
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