danshuang hao day

Today is Danshuanghao Day, or perhaps Odds/Evens Day works better. Today the regulation ordering private vehicles with plates ending in odd or even numbers off the roads on alternate days comes into effect. I wonder how effective this will be. One of the rumours I heard was that some rich people were planning on buying a second car and getting the licence plate they need so they can drive every day- just alternate cars. I remember seeing in the 新京报/The Beijing News an article saying that not only was this perfectly legal, but the government was going to allow people to book their licence plate numbers so they actually could guarantee getting the one they need. Kinda defeats the purpose of the whole odds/evens rule, doesn’t it? And now this article says that there’s no odds/evens rule between midnight and three am. So I guess all the rich people are going to jump in their cars and… umm…. traffic jam for three hours every night? Somehow, I don’t think so.

Well, whatever, I like this rule and anything that reasonably cuts down on the number of private cars on the roads, and I hope this rule succeeds.

About the Author

wangbo

A Kiwi teaching English to oil workers in Beijing, studying Chinese in my spare time, married to a beautiful Beijing lass, consuming vast quantities of green tea (usually Xihu Longjing/西湖龙井, if that means anything to you), eating good food (except for when I cook), missing good Kiwi ale, breathing smog, generally living as best I can outside Godzone and having a good time of it.

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