May 16, 2007
Public Reaction to Exorbitant Tolls Has Not Been Joyous
Good article by Jim Yardley, Chinese drivers hone the art of eluding the toll:
“Toll road building has been so feverish in China that roughly 40,000 kilometers of toll expressways were built from 1990 to 2005. A recent World Bank report on China’s highway construction program found that the toll roads were charging roughly the same as the German toll system.”
You often see military roadblocks just beyond the tollgates on roads leading out of Beijing — I didn’t realize they were checking for bogus military plates.
On our recent trip to Xinjiang we ran into quite a few “impromptu” roadblocks where locals would extract some money to pass. On the way to more prominent sightseeing spots there might be a “toll” every couple hundred yards as you approached the destination, which amused us. The best trick of course is to scatter the road with nails and set up a tire repair shop a convenient distance ahead — not uncommon in the People’s Republic.
May 17th, 2007 at 3:25 am
LOL at the Chinese locals. At least they are not pointing guns and hijacking tour buses.
May 17th, 2007 at 7:08 am
yin: Not yet anyway.
May 21st, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Mao
Why do you live there, when there is barbarism (nails and extortion at road blocks that are controlled by locals). Couldnt you have a better quality of life somewhere else? After all you can do this job from almost anywhere.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Rod: You take the bad with the good; in any event it’s a fascinating place to live right now.