Just over a decade ago, most Kunmingers got around via bicycle, bus or the occasional taxi. Today it has one of the highest car ownership rates in China and a second-hand car market that is starting to pick up steam – which will make cars affordable to a new wave of first-time car owners.

When car ownership in Kunming was starting to boom at the beginning of the last decade, there was little evidence to suggest that the local government cared about the city's streets becoming increasingly choked with cars and exhaust.

In the minds of many Kunming residents, the city's previous attitude toward traffic was epitomized by former deputy mayor Hu Xing (胡星), who was found guilty in 2007 of taking more than 40 million yuan in bribes while serving as deputy director of Yunnan's Transportation Bureau from 1995 to 2006.

In the last two years the Qiu He-led government has been busy with projects including construction of a 'turtleback' flyover at Xiao Ximen, two flyovers on Dianchi Lu and the complete overhaul of the second ring road and roads connecting Kunming with surrounding cities.

Now it appears emissions are in the government's crosshairs.

The Kunming Environmental Protection Bureau announced yesterday that it will introduce mandatory annual emissions testing starting February 1 that will affect as many as 750,000 motor vehicles on the roads of the greater Kunming area.

The testing, which will include taxis and diesel vehicles such as buses and large trucks, will be a part of each vehicle's annual safety test. Testing will carry a charge of 70 yuan for private passenger cars. The process is expected to take about five minutes.

The bureau cited Kunming's geography – lying in a smog-trapping basin – and high levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and unburned hydrocarbons in the air along major streets as reasons for implementing the testing.

According to local media, levels will be set such that a passenger car without a modern, functioning three-way catalytic converter will be incapable of passing the test.

The report quoted one car owner voicing frustration over having to pay 70 yuan per year on emission testing for the car that he bought new in 2008. "It's not a lot of money," he said, "but overall it feels a bit redundant."

Yunnan aiming to improve driver safety
In other traffic news, the Civilization Office of Yunnan Provincial Public Security Bureau has announced that from this year until 2012 the province will be implementing what it calls a "Civilized Traffic Action Plan" (文明交通行动计划).

The announcement came on the heels of the release of automobile accident statistics for 2009, in which it was reported that there were 5,075 major accidents with 1,888 deaths and 6,549 injuries in Yunnan last year.

With a focus on numbers typical to the Chinese bureaucracy, the project contains goals such as: "boycotting the six dangerous driving behaviors," and "advocating the six civilized traffic behaviors".

Some examples of habits that the project intends to curb are talking on phones while driving, random lane changes, and running red lights.

Kunming's status as one of the cities with the highest vehicle ownership rates in the country is in no imminent danger – the city now has 1.1 million registered motorized vehicles, with 900 vehicles being registered daily, according to a Dushi Shibao report.

Kunming car sales have rebounded from a several-month slowdown caused by the global financial crisis. Statistics provided by the Kunming Public Security Bureau's Vehicle Management Department show that car sales are approaching the all-time high experienced in late 2005 and early 2006, when nearly 1,000 vehicles were being registered daily.

Despite being relatively small in comparison to other Chinese cities – it is China's 23rd-largest city – Kunming became the ninth Chinese city to have one million registered vehicles last year.

Conditions are ripe for auto sales in Kunming to continue to increase in the coming months. The recent completion of the city's double-decker second ring road, the local economy's recovery from the effects of the global economic downturn and a growing second-hand car market have made the idea of purchasing a vehicle more feasible to the average Kunming resident.

Ramifications of the growing number of vehicles on Kunming's streets are apparent. In addition to increased air pollution, the Chinese saying "many monks, not much porridge" (僧多粥少) aptly sums up the parking situation throughout the city. Many of the city's parking lots are filled during the day, leading to many Kunming drivers parking illegally, often in bike lanes or on sidewalks.

To address this problem, the city government has recently announced that automobiles parked on sidewalks that block the yellow ground tiles intended for blind people will receive 50 yuan parking tickets on the spot. Whether the city has the ability – and will – to enforce this new regulation should be apparent soon, just as it was with last year's ill-fated attempt to ban the unnecessary use of car horns.

Image: poco.cn

Dali hit by 5.0 magnitude earthquake
At 5:07 this morning Binchuan County in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture was shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale. No injuries have been reported so far, but most homes in the area are suffering from severe cracking and many homes have collapsed.

Kunming hostage crisis resolved
Kunming police were busy early on Sunday morning when a man held a young woman hostage at a Citic Bank ATM on Beijing Lu. At 6:40 am migrant worker Wu Wenkai, 32, took Yang Lifeng, 23, hostage with a knife. Shortly afterward, police had sealed off the area, with a large group of passersby watching the hostage situation unfold through the glass of the ATM booth.

Police negotiated with Wu for eight hours before succeeding in ending the standoff without violence on Sunday afternoon. Wu reportedly said that he had resorted to taking a hostage to bring attention to his unpaid wages.

Qujing's roads filling up with motorized vehicles
As of October 20, the government of Qujing had registered 605,000 motorized vehicles, accounting for more than 10 percent of all of Yunnan's motorized vehicles.

Unlike Kunming, where automobiles make up the bulk of the more than one million registered motorized vehicles, the motorcycle is king in Qujing. According to government statistics, motorcycles account for 65 percent of the vehicles on Qujing's roads.

Qujing, Yunnan's second-largest city, is one of China's wealthiest cities in terms of purchasing power parity, primarily from its pillar industries of tobacco, pharmaceuticals and mining. However, Qujing's economy is slowly moving away from the large state-owned enterprise model, with the share of local GDP generated by retail and real estate growing rapidly in recent years.

After an absence of nearly one year due to the renovating of the city's second ring road, no-car days will return to Kunming next Tuesday. City officials said the day would be used to promote health and environmental consciousness by encouraging Kunming residents to walk or ride bicycles.

Kunming became the first Chinese city to hold monthly no-car days in 2007, with all private cars being banned within the first ring road – and sometimes as far as the second ring road - on the last Saturday of each month.

No-car days were suspended in the autumn of 2008 after the government determined that banning private cars for a day was untenable given the large-scale traffic infrastructure overhaul taking place across the city.

This coming Tuesday (September 22) will mark the first no-car day held on a weekday, which will have implications for people who are accustomed to driving to work.

From 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, buses and taxis will be the only motorized vehicles allowed within – but not including - the city's first ring road. The first ring road consists of Huancheng Xi Lu, Huancheng Nan Lu, Huancheng Dong Lu, Huancheng Bei Lu and Yieryi Dajie.

Kunming, often derided by locals and local media as ducheng (堵城, or 'Traffic jam city'), has one of the highest car ownership rates and some of the worst traffic among Chinese cities.

The effect of the rapid increase in car sales in Kunming was compounded by ineffective governmental road planning, best exemplified by the corruption case of Hu Xing (胡星).

Hu was deputy director of Yunnan's Transportation Bureau and Kunming Deputy Mayor from 1995 to 2006 and was responsible for road construction and city planning. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for taking more than 40 million yuan in bribes after being arrested in and extradited from Singapore.