"Emergence of private cars brings more opportunities of traveling," said Liu Neng, associate professor at the Sociology Department of Peking University. "Besides traveling in the same city and suburbs, more and more people are traveling to other cities."

Having a car also brings with it more convenience, freedom and pleasure.

"With private cars, many people don't need to worry about queuing up to buy train tickets to their hometown during the Spring Festival," Zhang Yu said. "With their own cars, they can go to a small remote town to enjoy a good meal without considering how far away it is. Cars bring people freedom from space limitations and much happiness and pleasure."

About face

Though Liu Pengpeng graduated from university only five years ago, he now has his own car. "I used to envy those who could enjoy the road by driving their own cars, so I dreamed to have my own car," Liu said. In June 2004, he spent over 30,000 yuan to buy a Chery QQ, one of the cheapest cars in China. Because of his finance, Liu could only afford such a car.

The purchase of a car stirred discontent with Liu's mother. In her view, it wasn't necessary for Liu to buy a car, since there is a bus station near his home. "He wants a car just because others have one, and he wasn't considering his economic situation," said Liu's mother. "He bought the car just for face, for showing off before his classmates."

Since Liu bought the car, some of his friends without cars begged him to take them out for a ride. Liu did achieve face before his friends, but months later, his fuel expenditures soared from 400 yuan to 800 yuan per month, or one fourth of his salary. He is unable to stand such expenses.

The choice of cars reflects how the Chinese are keen on face-saving. Environmentally friendly cars are not popular, and if financially allowed, people will often choose mid- or high-range cars, or even imported cars-all with higher emissions. Even if low-emission cars are more suitable, many people won't consider buying one. Even those who have bought low-emission cars are thinking of changing to ones with higher emissions. Big, beautiful cars mean big face, which translates into big prestige.

Zhang Yu deeply understands the face brought by cars. According to him, in today's society, what kind of car a person owns symbolizes his life style and social status. It's not as important what you wear and who you are. Others only recognize you for your car. They think Santana is for common people while Cadillac is for millionaires.

In recent years, the sales volume of imported cars has increased and some luxury cars have even become favorites in the Chinese market. According to statistics from the Traffic Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, by June 2007, the number of imported cars had reached 1.9 million, an increase of 75,730 or 4.14 percent compared with the end of 2006. Among the imported motor vehicles, the world's top luxury cars such as Bentley, Cadillac, Porsche and Ferrari have seen their growth rates soar over 100 percent.

Now the bad news

In China, parking difficulties madden car owners in many cities. Unable to find parking spaces, many drivers have to park their car wherever they can find an opening. Because of this, the safety of the cars cannot be secured.

Along with the increase in automobiles has come the rapid growth in fuel consumption. At present, automobiles in China consume 85 percent of the country's total gasoline output and 42 percent of the diesel oil output.

The increase of automobiles has also led to the loss of land space. China already is one with the lowest area of per-capita cultivatable land in the world. Automobile factories, sales companies, maintenance yards, parking lots and wide roads all need large amounts of land. China has built 1.34 million km of roads, more than enough to circle the Earth over 30 times. The land covered by roads in China exceeds the total land area of South Korea, let alone those large areas now used for auto parts and automobile factories.

With increase of cars, water and fresh air are becoming scarce resources in China. In large cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, auto emissions have become the largest source for pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbon. According to the State Environment Protection Administration, in 2005, tailpipe gas emissions from automobiles accounted for 79 percent of the total air pollution in cities. Fifteen years ago during a Beijing winter, common respiratory diseases such as colds and coughs could be cured just in one week. Some patients could even recover by themselves just with bed rest for three days. But now, some people need more than half a month to recuperate. Throughout the years, though many chimneys have been pulled down and many factories have been moved to the suburbs of Beijing, respiratory diseases are still increasing. The major reason is pollution from automobiles.

Growth of automobiles also creates more traffic jams. Wang Qishan, Mayor of Beijing, once said that what concerns him most is the traffic problem. Monitoring by the traffic management department of Beijing shows that during rush hours, the average speed on some roads is only 11 km per hour, the same as that of bicycles. Traffic jams waste a lot of time and money. According to economist Mao Yushi, every year Beijing suffers direct losses of 6 billion yuan from traffic jams. Traffic jams and traffic accidents cause the country to lose 2 percent of its GDP every year. Many other cities, even small and medium-sized ones, are now faced with traffic jams. Because of these traffic pressures, cities are expanded and roads are built, sharpening the conflict between land supply and demand.

Zhang Xiaoyu, Deputy Director of the China Machinery Industry Federation, points out that the largest problems that China faces brought by automobiles are environment protection, energy consumption and safety.

"At present, environment protection and energy conservation are the problems that China must face as a large auto producer and consumer in the world," Zhang said.