Why, in Shanghai, A License Plate Is A Precious Metal
SHANGHAI -- Li Zhongji waded into the crowd at a Shanghai auction house and stopped in front of a bank of computers to make his bid on a license plate. He had sold his motorcycle to help finance the purchase.
Chinese officials worry that there are too many people like Mr. Li, a 51-year-old real-estate broker who has wanted a car for as long as he can remember and now can afford one. So they have come up with an unusual speed bump to slow down Shanghai's surging consumer class: a monthly license-plate auction.
Last month, nearly 20,000 people bid for 6,233 available car plates. The number of plates available varies according to a formula that counts the number of scrapped cars removed from the roads and monthly car sales in the city.
"Can you imagine if everybody who wanted a car could buy one?" asks Sun Jian, deputy director of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau. "By tomorrow, we'd be one big parking garage."
To participate in Shanghai's auction, residents must pay a $250 deposit, show two pieces of identification and pass a phalanx of security guards at an auction house an hour outside the city. Shanghai residents only half-jokingly describe the aluminum plate as the city's most precious metal. In May, the average bid price surged to $4,133, more than four times the country's annual per capita income.
China's flourishing car culture has been great news for auto makers and economic growth. But it is creating big headaches for bureaucrats alarmed by the snarled traffic, heavy smog and rocketing oil imports. In the first five months of this year, China added an average of 14,195 vehicles to the road each day. Within two decades, the country should surpass the U.S. as the world's biggest auto market.
Changchun, in the Northeast, is levying a $72-a-year fee on every vehicle purchased -- for "increasing the auto population." Away from China's wealthy coast, Shaoyang city collects 1% of the purchase price from car buyers to distribute to laid-off workers.
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Such measures have met resistance, and not just from car buyers. Central government authorities, keen to develop China's auto industry, oppose local efforts to curb individual car ownership. In 2000, they ordered cities across China to cancel 238 different types of auto-related fees. Assistant Commerce Minister Huang Hai recently berated Shanghai over its auction, saying it violates the rules and hurts car sales. "The car is a commodity that a modern society can't be short of," Mr. Huang said.
Mr. Li has wanted to own -- and drive -- a car all his life. As a child, he listened to his father's tales of driving supply trucks for the U.S. Army on the island of Saipan after World War II. Later, his father taught Chinese soldiers to drive jeeps so they could fight the Americans in the Korean War. Even Mr. Li's wife drives, as a chauffeur for China's military brass. Mr. Li is itching to buy a car. "It's a matter of individual freedom," he says.
So on a drizzly Saturday morning, he put on his black Nike baseball cap and pulled down the metal shutter on his street-side office. A friend, a Buick sales agent, had earlier predicted that 16,000 yuan, or $1,932, would be enough to buy a plate at auction. Mr. Li mulled the tip as he crossed puddles along the auction grounds parking lot. "Sounds about right," he said.
Shanghai implemented its auction system in 1986, after a group of traffic policemen visited Singapore and liked what they saw. Singapore's system is complicated, but it effectively keeps down the car population. Drivers must bid for a 10-year permit to put a car on the road, with different classifications based on engine size. One type applies to cars driven only on weekends or in off-hours.
Shanghai's system, in theory, is simpler: The highest bidders get a license plate. The system requires participants to enter the amount they are willing to pay without knowing what anyone else is bidding.
Currently, 1.8 million people in Shanghai have driver's licenses, or one in 10 residents. But only a fraction of licensed drivers can drive their own cars, because they lack the requisite license plate. Last year, there were three times as many driver's licenses issued as car plates.
While the government accepts bids via telephone and Internet, many bidders, like Mr. Li, trek to the auction grounds so they can gauge crowd size and demand, and gather helpful data like the number of registered bidders. Waiting to bid with her husband, construction-company executive Lisa Fang recalled when she first got the driving bug, during a 1991 visit to Los Angeles. "Toyotas everywhere," she said. "Young and old, driving their own cars." In Shanghai, by contrast, "people can afford a car and want a car, but the system just cuts them off," she said.
A Chinese steel-company employee perspired nervously near a bank of computers, where he planned to bid a fifth time for a car plate. He said he had bid too low in three previous auctions. The fourth time, his bid was high enough, $4,700, but he gave up his right to the plate after deciding it was too costly. The temporary license on his Hyundai Sonata expired long ago, he says, so he spends a lot of time trying to avoid Shanghai traffic police. "I drive in the countryside, mainly," said the man, who asked to be identified only by his surname, Ma.
Many find ways to get around the auction process. Lin Ming, an auto mechanic, bought a 15-year-old Nissan Cedric and initially planned to scrap all but the license plate. Instead, Mr. Lin opted to save money by driving the rusted jalopy for a couple of extra years and bribing vehicle inspectors to pass emissions tests. Now, Mr. Lin boasts, he can afford something really nice, "with leather seats and a sun roof" -- and the Nissan's plates.
Standing in front of one of the auction's 50 computers that accept bids, Mr. Li wiped his hand on his blue slacks, then carefully punched in his bid: 17,000 yuan, or $2,050 dollars. That was a little more money than his friend had advised, but, Mr. Li said, "I want to be on the safe side." After the machine spit out a receipt, he examined his bid and stuffed it into a shirt pocket.
Riding back into town in an acquaintance's car, he watched hundreds of four- and two-wheel vehicles converging and weaving as they tried to squeeze through an intersection. "They say Shanghai is the most difficult place in the world to drive," Mr. Li said. "I don't care. I am sick of the bus."
In the afternoon, he dialed in to learn the results of the auction. The winning bids were also broadcast on the evening news: His bid was $90 too low. Mr. Li called his auto-agent friend to vent. "So close," he said, crushed.
A week later, he registered for the July auction. And this time, he is not taking anyone's advice. This time, Mr. Li says, he is bidding high
汽车易买 牌照难得
李中继（音）挤入上海一家人头攒动的拍卖行，在一排电脑面前止住了脚步。他已卖出了一辆摩托车，现在还打算卖出一套公寓，为接下来的资产购置筹资。他想买的是一张汽车牌照。
中国政府官员担心像李先生这样的人太多了。现年51岁的李中继是位房地产交易商，从记事时起他就一直梦想著能拥有一辆汽车，现在终于能买得起了。目前在上海，决策者们让这群车迷们的美梦难以成真。
正当数百万中国人努力争取实现购车梦想时，决策者们急踩刹车，以阻止这些人全都一下子涌到马路上来。拥有私家车现已成为新兴中产阶级的新标志。
上海市环境保护局(Shanghai Enviroment Protection Bureau)副局长孙建说，你能想像如果每个想买车的人都拥有一辆车会是什么样吗？马路上第二天就会变成一个大停车场。
中国日渐风行的汽车文化对于汽车制造商以及经济增长而言是个大好消息，但由此引起的交通拥堵、大量废气以及飞涨的原油进口量也令那些政府官员们头痛不已。在今年的前5个月里，中国道路上日均新增14,195辆汽车。预计中国将在今后20年内超过美国，成为全球最大的汽车市场。
于是，一些地方政府开始自己想办法。在私营经济的发源地温州，当地政府也对汽车牌照进行拍卖，但对末位数为4的牌照提供折扣，因为4在中文里听上去与“死“的发音很像。而位于东北的长春市则对每辆新购汽车每年征收人民币600元（合72.50美元）的汽车增容费。内地湖南省的邵阳市对私人购车者加收1%的车价，然后把加收的钱分配给失业人员。
这些措施遭遇阻力，而且阻力不仅仅来自迷恋汽车的老百姓。急于把汽车工业发展成为国民经济支柱产业的中央政府反对地方政府控制购车量的做法。在2000年，中央政府明令各地取消了238种与汽车相关的收费。中国商务部部长助理黄海近日指责上海拍卖私家汽车牌照的行为违反了国家有关规定，遏制了汽车销售。
黄海指出，汽车是现代社会不可或缺的商品。（上海市政府发言人则表示上海不打算很快放弃或是改变现行的牌照拍卖制度。）
上海市民半开玩笑地把那铝制车牌称为上海最昂贵的金属牌。今年5月，上海汽车车牌的平均中标价飙升至全国人均年收入1,000美元的4倍。要参与车牌拍卖，上海市民必须支付价值250美元的订金，并前往距市区一小时车程的拍卖行，出示两种身份证件，并通过大量保安人员的检查。上个月，近2万人参与了6,233张汽车牌照的拍卖。
这一切并没有阻止李先生渴望自己拥有汽车尽情驰骋的热情。当他还是个孩子的时候，他就聆听父亲在第二次世界大战后驾驶卡车为塞班岛(Saipan)上的美国军队运送物资的传奇故事。后来，他父亲在抗美援朝战斗中教中国士兵驾驶吉普车。李先生的妻子也会开车，她为中国军队高官担任司机。李先生很想买辆别克(Buick)。他说，选择别克纯粹是个人爱好。
在一个飘著毛毛雨的周六上午，李中继光秃秃的头上戴著一顶黑色耐克棒球帽，把沿街的办公室的百叶窗拉下来。他的一位朋友是别克汽车的代理销售商，原先曾预言花人民币1.6万元（合1,933美元）能买到一张车牌。李先生一路跨过拍卖行停车场边的水坑，一边在想朋友说得好像有理。
上海一个交警代表团访问新加坡时受到启发，于是上海从1986年开始借鉴该国的做法实行私车车牌拍卖制度。新加坡的拍卖制度很复杂，但有效地控制了汽车总量。驾车人必须通过拍卖获得为期10年的上路许可证，根据发电机型号的不同，车牌也有不同分类；还有一种牌照专门适用周末或高峰期以外开车的人。上海的拍卖体系从理论上更简单：出价最高的人获得车牌，但从实际来看，则变成了高赌注的赌博。
按照上海的私车牌照拍卖制度，竞拍人要在不知道别人出价的情况下报出自己愿意支付的价格。只有出价最高的人才能获得车牌，因此这对竞标者来说是机会均等的，虽然未来的司机们只有出足够高的价格才能如愿，但也不至于出价过高。目前，已有180万上海市民获得了驾驶执照，相当于每10个人中就有一个，但其中只有一小部分人拥有私车，因为大部分人没有私车牌照。上海去年颁发的驾驶执照是私车牌照的3倍。
虽然政府允许市民通过电话和互联网参与竞标，但包括李先生在内的许多人还是宁愿不辞辛苦地跑到拍卖现场，这样他们可以估计参与拍卖的人数和需求，并收集诸如登记竞标人数等有价值的数据。正与丈夫等待拍卖的Lisa Fang是某建筑公司的主管，她回忆起1991年访问洛杉矶时迷上开车的往事。她说，那里到处都是丰田(Toyota)车，无论老少，人人都自己开车。相比之下在上海，有人想买车也买得起车，但制度却把他们挡在门外。
为了实现买车这一生的梦想，许多中国人动用了大量积蓄，亲戚们也慷慨解囊，一些人还背负沉重的银行贷款。由于赚得比以前多了，大家都想买辆时髦的新车来炫耀自己的实力。
某钢铁公司的一位职员在拍卖行电脑前紧张得出汗，这已是他第五次出价了。他说自己在前3次竞标中出价太低，第四次他的出价够高了，相当于4,700美元，但他后来觉得太贵就放弃了。他驾驶的现代索纳塔(Hyundai Sonata)用的临时车牌早就过期了，因此他每天都和交警玩捉迷藏的游戏。这位马姓先生说自己主要在市郊开车。
许多人已找到了绕开车牌拍卖的办法。汽车技师林明（音）就买了一辆有15年历史的尼桑公爵轿车，原打算只留下车牌。可后来他决定再开几年这辆破车，先攒些钱下来，当然他买通了验车人员，这样他的车能安然通过尾气排放测试。林先生说，如今他可以购买配有真皮座位和遮阳顶的好车了，当然还是用那辆旧车的牌照。
现年34岁的鲁平（音）是位饼干销售员，他说自己花了相当于300美元的人民币购买了紧邻上海的小城湖州的车牌。帮他购买丰田威驰的上海汽车代理商安排了上述交易。路先生说自己在两周内就拿到了车牌，不过他承认，外地车牌使他不能在高峰期时上高速路。
而李中继则表示，当他带客户参观上海最新开发的楼盘时，开著一辆外地车牌的汽车会让他感到难堪。站在拍卖行的50台电脑面前，他小心翼翼地输入了自己的出价：人民币1.7万元，相当于2,050美元。这一出价略高于朋友的建议，不过李先生表示这样更有把握。当电脑打出收据时，他仔细看了看，随后放进衬衣口袋。
李先生搭上熟人的车回到市区，他看到很多汽车和自行车在通过一个十字路口时相互拥挤。他说：“人们都说上海是世界上最难开车的地方，但我不在乎。我对坐公交车已经厌倦了。“
李先生希望，当父母生病时自己能开车送他们上医院，在周末时开车接正在读大学的女儿回家，或仅仅是开车逛街。当天下午，他通过电话得知了拍卖结果。当晚的新闻里也公布了中标结果：他的出价比中标价只低了90美元。李先生打电话向那位汽车代理商抱怨。他沮丧地说：“只差了一点点。“
