Once a nation associated with its millions of bicycles, China is now the second-fastest-growing market for cars in the world. Millions of Chinese have already purchased cars and millions more are expected to make purchases in the coming decade as homegrown automotive companies are able to provide more affordable models for the domestic market.
Already new car sales have reached 18 million annually in China (compared to 14.5 million in the United States) but the room for growth is enormous: whereas there are roughly six hundred cars per one thousand people in the United States, there are only forty-four per one thousand in China as of 2013. Owning a car has become part of the Chinese dream; as one female contestant explained on a popular television dating show, “I’d rather cry in the back of a BMW than smile on the back of a
bicycle.”
Despite heavy tariffs, sales of luxury cars have been growing steadily over the last decade and are predicted to surpass the United States by 2016. In fact, when Rolls-Royce launched a special $1.2 million “Year of the Dragon” version of its Phantom model, all eight were sold in less than two months.
Meanwhile, China is seeking to make a splash in the foreign automobile market, building car factories in Wuhu, Anhui Province, for example, and supplying automotive parts of high quality that are cheaper than those produced in the United States, Germany, or Japan. And in 2012 a Chinese company took over the storied British Black Cab company, a longtime symbol of modern London that was prominently displayed in the opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Car brands have their own associations in China. Audis are seen as the car of choice of government officials, Buicks are a family model, and Ferrari and Porsches are the favorite of the “Red Princelings” the children of wealthy and connected government officials. China’s own Chery QQ hatchback may have been designed with the domestic market in mind, but as one Chinese businessman told the Guardian newspaper, if he drove such a low-end car to meet a client, the business deal would be “doomed” before he ever reached the door.
Cars can also take on political significance. During anti-Japanese street demonstrations following a political standoff over the contested sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands (the Japanese also claim them, calling them the Senkaku), a mob pulled a Chinese man out of his Toyota Corolla and beat him so severely, he was paralyzed.
The Chinese love affair with the car has had negative consequences for the environment. Congestion now reigns in China’s cities. In one contest sponsored by the media group Bloomberg, a bicyclist was better able to navigate Beijing, beating a Porsche by nearly a half hour. And China holds the ignominious record of worst traffic jam for a twelve-day, sixty-two-mile standstill on a national highway outside Beijing in 2012. Worst of all is the quality of air in the capital city. Smog levels literally blew the charts in 2013, measuring 755 on a scale of 0 to 500, where 500 was already supposed to be too toxic for humans to breathe.
Road deaths resulting from traffic accidents are high, although how high remains a matter of debate. The Chinese government issued official figures in 2011 showing a decrease in deaths at 62,387 people, although researchers claim the real toll is likely much higher, saying police records show 81,649 deaths in 2007, and death registrations for the year show that 221,135 died because of car crashes.
What this means for the ever-pragmatic tourist is that it’s a very good idea to use the restroom before embarking on a car trip.
The other essential piece of knowledge you will need to know about cars is that you should never assume a car will stop for a pedestrian in its path. One American student of ours commented poignantly about watching a Chinese pedestrian get struck by a car while attempting to cross the street at a designated crosswalk. “He might have survived, if not for the fact that every other car turning onto the street ran over him, too.”
In the early to mid-1980s, such accidents were not uncommon either, but back then drivers had an excuse: during the Cultural Revolution red lights meant go (red being the color of revolution and Marxism) and green lights meant stop. When Deng Xiaoping ushered in the reform era in 1979, traffic light meanings were changed to conform with the rest of the world. Older drivers may not have gotten the message. Also, in an attempt to save their headlight bulbs, which in China’s nascent
market-based economy were not that easily attainable, cars and trucks tended to drive at night with their headlights off.
Today, however, it seems drivers are merely impatient, cross, and distracted (there are no enforceable laws banning cell phone use or even preventing drivers from watching satellite TV in their cars handy during long traffic jams but deadly at other times). Drivers are also fairly self-confident that when it comes to a showdown between a car and a pedestrian, the pedestrian will not emerge victorious. Therefore, it is a very good idea to cross the street with a group of people. Running over an individual may be hazardous if a cop happens to be nearby, but running over a massive group of people will definitely dent the driver’s car, and people are really fond of their cars. As China’s city streets tend to be quite crowded, it is not difficult to find a group to cross with, even when jaywalking.
But remember, never assume a car will slow down for you alone just because you happen to be in its path!
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