Dave Murphry's

Notes from China

March 2007

A few interesting observations from a fellow Member

Friday March 2nd

By the way, I'm currently in Shanghai China. I've been here a whole day
>>and a half and have yet to see a single 2 seater - unless it's
>>pedal-powered. I'd hoped to see a new MG, but maybe they haven't started
>>making them here yet. They make the Chrysler 300 here and call it the 300
>>c even though it has a 2 liter or 2.7 liter 4 cylinder rather than the
>>Hemi. They also make all sorts of Buicks, some styles unkown in the US.
>>-Dave

Sunday March 4th

The only UK car I've seen is a single yellow and black BMW MINI. (And it
took 3 days to see my first pet doggy).
Shanghai has between 17 and 20 million people and 192,000 cars, up from
120,000 a year ago. It costs $3000 to register a new car. Shanghai has
17,000 busses and 50,000 taxis. About 99% of the the taxis are three
vintages of a Chinese-made VW "Santana", the oldest version of which is
about 8 - 10 years old and stated life as the Audi 4000 that was sold in USA
circa 1982.
Hardly anyone stops at red lights, unless its in the tourist shopping areas
with big wide cross-walks . Motorscooters (which are whisper-quiet) and
bicycles turning at an intersection seem as apt to be in the oncoming lane.
as in the correct one. There are lots of lane changes with horns honking
and one foot of clearance between the passer and the guy he's cutting in
front of. And busses seem to drive on the narrow right shoulder on the
freeway with horns honking every time they pass another vehicle.