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

Kunming's Second Ring Road open to traffic
After one year of demolition and reconstruction, Kunming's second ring road (二环) is now open to test traffic and will officially open to the public on Wednesday.

Local media is gushing about the completion of the ring road, which will serve as the linchpin in the city's "four rings, 17 spokes" traffic plan, in which expansion of the city's traffic system from two ring roads centered around Green Lake Park to four ring roads – the fourth encircling Dianchi Lake – will shift the center of the city's traffic structure southward, coinciding with the development of "New Kunming" in Chenggong.

According to government traffic officials, once on the second ring road, it will be possible for cars to reach destinations including Chenggong, Anning, Jinning, Kunyang, Haikou, and Songming. Travel time from to Yiliang, Luquan, Shilin and Xundian will be reduced to one hour.

Dali – Lijiang rail line open to public tomorrow
Beginning tomorrow, the new Dali-Lijiang rail line (大丽铁路) will officially open to the public, linking the two popular tourist destinations by rail for the first time.

The Dali-Lijiang passenger line will operate daily, with hard seats on the L9016/7 (Dali to Lijiang) and the L9018/5 (Lijiang to Dali) costing 34 yuan. Total time for the journey is approximately three hours and 45 minutes.

The L9016/7 Leaves Dali at 9:26 am, stops for two minutes at Shangguan at 10:51 and arrives at Lijiang at 1:12 pm. The L9018/5 leaves Lijiang East Station at 1:45 pm, stops in Shangguan for two minutes at 3:59 pm and arrives in Dali at 5:26 pm.

Southwest China's first IMAX theater to open in Kunming
At the end of this month Kunming will become the first city in Southwest China with an IMAX Theater, according to government-run BBS clzg.cn.

The theater, which features a 12 meters high by 21 meters wide screen, is located in the new Shuncheng Shopping Center on Dongfeng Xi Lu. The shopping center, which will also be home to retail outlets including Zara and Papa John's, is built on the old Shuncheng Muslim quarter, which prior to its demolition in 2004 was a dilapidated but vibrant neighborhood filled with Hui and Uighur restaurants.

Image: news.kunming.cn

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.

Despite construction work having already begun, it is now official: Kunming will soon have its own urban light rail network.

The city's light rail system was approved by the State Council in Beijing on June 8th of this year and construction is formally set to begin in August, although China Railway Construction Construction signs have been surrounding construction sites around Kunming for the last several weeks and some work is already underway.

According to city planning officials, Kunming's light rail network will consist of a total of six lines made up of three main lines (lines one through three) and three auxiliary lines (four through six). The three main lines will combine to cover 62.6 kilometers, serving a total of 47 stations. All told, the six lines will cover 162.6 kilometers.

The first phase of construction, which will include lines one and two, is scheduled for completion at the end of 2012.

Here's a rough summary of the different lines:

One: will span 34 kilometers, connecting downtown Kunming with Chenggong new city

Two: will connect north and south Kunming.

Three: will connect east and west Kunming primarily via Dongfeng Lu and Renmin Lu

Four and Five: will serve as feeder lines for the main lines

Six: will connect Kunming's new airport, currently under construction, with the city

In addition to relieving pressure on Kunming's notoriously inefficient road network, the subway and elevated rail stations are expected to have a positive effect on nearby residential and commercial property values.

Yunnan CBA team up for sale
The Honghe Running Bulls, one of the worst teams in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), is up for sale.

The team's owner is unable to pay its players, according to a Reuters report, which is a reflection of the financial issues the CBA is currently facing.

The CBA's 2008-9 season was a lesson in overreach, with the season expanding to 450 games from 200 the year before and league teams combining to lose 115 million yuan (US$16.8 million), putting the league's existence in danger.

CBA director Xin Lancheng singled out foreign players as being one of the league's major problems, saying they were overpaid and hard to manage, adding that rules regarding foreign players would be revised.

Last year the CBA revised rules to allow teams to field two non-Chinese players. The rule change's goal was to raise competition and interest in the CBA, but dominance by foreign players like Bonzi Wells became embarrassing for the league – 19 of last season's top 20 scorers in the CBA were foreigners.

Qiu He calls for transport construction progress report
Kunming Municipal Party Secretary Qiu He held a meeting yesterday with municipal and county officials overseeing the numerous traffic infrastructure projects around the city to assess progress and to ask for understanding, cooperation and support from the city's residents, according to a report in party paper Kunming Daily.

Qiu, the most powerful leader the Kunming municipal government has seen in more than a decade, emphasized the need for research on the progress and quality of the major overhaul of the city's inefficient and overworked traffic infrastructure.

"How much construction has been completed up to this point?" Qiu asked the city officials. "What difficulties are arising during the construction process? How many shifts are there supervising all this work?"

Currently there are several major transportation infrastructure projects underway: the second ring road is being rebuilt with a new elevated road above it, a tunnel through Gangtou mountain will be added to the third ring road, the first lines of the city's subway and elevated rail network are being built, hills have been leveled to make way for the new airport now under construction and major renovation work is being done on Beijing Lu, Xiba Lu, Haigeng Lu and Rixin Lu.

Python goes on chicken-eating rampage
The China Daily is reporting that a python entered a chicken farm in Menghai county on Monday, where it ate 42 chickens before being stopped by the farm's owner. The protected animal was captured alive and was turned over to the local wild animal protection center.

Dali-Lijiang rail line to open in December
The long-awaited Dali-Lijiang rail line (大丽铁路) is scheduled to commence operations on the last day of this year, according to a Dushi Shibao report.

Of the rail line's 164 kilometers, 22 kilometers are on bridges and 78 kilometers are tunneled – 62 percent of the line travels over bridges or through tunnels. At present, work crews are boring through Heluo Shan (禾洛山), the final mountain to be tunneled before the line enters Lijiang.

Work on the Dali-Lijiang line began in 2004. The line will begin at Dali East Station, traveling along the eastern shore of Erhai Lake with stops at Shangguan (上关), Xiyi (西邑) and Heqing (鹤庆) before arriving in Lijiang.

The rail line will eventually be extended to Shangri-la (Zhongdian) and then on to Lhasa.

Kunming to crack down on electric bicycles
Starting tomorrow, Kunming police will be cracking down on illegal operation of electric bicycles around the city and will be issuing fines ranging from five to 50 yuan, according to local media reports. Fineable offenses will include carrying multiple passengers, going the wrong way, riding in car lanes, riding on sidewalks and running red lights.

The combination of rapidly growing numbers of electric bicycles on Kunming's streets – there are an estimated 700,000 electric bikes in the city today - and the legal gray area the vehicles occupy have led to increasing safety problems.

In 2004, two people died in electric bike accidents in Kunming, compared to 20 last year and 13 in the first four months of this year. So far this year, electric bikes have been involved in roughly 25 percent of the traffic accident calls received by police.

The crackdown on electric bicycles will last 100 days, during which it is evidently hoped that vehicle owners will become accustomed to obeying traffic rules.

Man tests negative for swine flu, released from quarantine
The final passenger from a Mexican airline flight containing people infected with the H1N1 virus tested negative for the disease - more commonly known as swine flu – and was from quarantine in Kunming prior to the weekend.

Two days after news of the man's release, China's Health Ministry announced that the first suspected H1N1 case on the mainland - a thirty-year-old man returning from studying in the United States – was under quarantine in a hospital in Chengdu.

Bus accident leaves 21 dead
The highway between Kunming and Chuxiong was the scene of a fatal collision between a tourist bus and a truck full of watermelons on Saturday. Nineteen people died on Saturday and two more on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 21, according to a Xinhua report.

The watermelon truck reportedly crashed into the back of a tour bus carrying tourists from Beijing, Shanxi and Hunan at 6:40 Saturday morning. Both vehicles lost control and veered off the road. Twenty people were also injured in the accident, all of whom are no longer in critical condition, according to a Yunnan government spokesperson.

Bangladesh, Yunnan discussing rail link
Bangladesh Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain met with Yunnan government officials last Thursday to discuss a proposed rail line between Kunming and its sister city in Bangladesh, the port city of Chittagong, according to Bangladeshi media reports.

In recent years the Yunnan government and China's central government have expressed their desire to have transport links to Chittagong, which lies on the Bay of Bengal. Port access in the Bay of Bengal would reduce Chinese reliance upon the Malacca Strait, which occasionally has piracy problems. The Malacca Strait is also patrolled by the US and its allies, which adds to Beijing's uneasiness.

A rail line connecting Chittagong with Kunming would pass through mountainous northern Myanmar. In his visit to China, Hossain also met with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to seek technical and financial assistance for the project.

Kunming Nanchang rail line to launch tomorrow
Yunnan and Jiangxi provinces will finally be connected directly by rail with tomorrow's launch of the 1235/6 train between Kunming and Jiangxi provincial capital Nanchang, according to a Sohu report citing Jiangxi railway officials.

The new line will feature 20 stops between Kunming and Nanchang. In addition to stops in Yunnan and Jiangxi, the line will also pass through cities in Guizhou and Hunan provinces.

Accident image: news.xinhuanet.com