Traffic Scheme Revised!

Starting Nov. 10, the ongoing number traffic scheme will be revised.  Every month the days will be changed in order to give “equal” days off to car owners.  Some people are saying it will be difficult to keep track and it’s “ma fan” to private car owners.  Some people are suggesting that they should just use the odd-even scheme to ban government vehicles.

In any case, the new scheme will see vehicles with plate numbers ending with 5 and 0 off on Mondays, 1 and 6 on Tuesdays, 2 and 7 on Wednesdays, 3 and 8 on Thursdays, 4 and 9 on Fridays.  Penalty for offenders will remain at RMB 100 and those cars will be off the road from 6am to 9pm on said days.

Ever since they started this scheme last month, traffic had a slight improvement.  There are days wherein traffic is still bad but there are days wherein it’s smooth sailing.  Air quality is still not that great but there are more blue sky days now.  Let’s see what other surprises will they do in the future but you’ll be sure that they would implement it with an iron fist.

Photo credit: http://www.remodelista.com

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New Traffic Scheme in Beijing

After two months of being pampered with clean air and less traffic, Beijing motorists were plagued with traffic jams on the first day off of the odd-even scheme during the Games.  Air quality deteriorated badly that government officials implemented a new traffic scheme starting yesterday.

I remember talking to my friend who has a car about the traffic scheme in Manila and how it would be good if it was implemented here before my European trip.  Lo and behold, they implemented it with some revisions.  It seems like they will be giving it a trial run till April 10 of next year.  The number traffic scheme would ban cars whose last digit on their car plates matches the number they’ve selected from 6 am to 9 pm on certain days.  Weekends are excluded on the traffic scheme.  They devised whose off as follow: 1 and 6 on Monday, 2 and 7 on Tuesday, 3 and 8 on Wednesday, 4 and 9 on Thursday , and 5 and 0 on Friday.

Milk.. Tainted or Not?

Milk is an important source of calcium which is good for our bones.  Babies can consume several bottles of milk a day as it’s their source of food.  So, when the news reported that some of the milk are tainted with melamine, first thing which came into my mind was, here we go again.

Melamine is a chemical used to produce plastic, inks and fertilizers.  If added in food products, it will increase the protein content.  If ingested, melamine may lead to reproductive damage, bladder or kidney stones and bladder cancer.  To date, 4 infants in China already died due to drinking tainted milk.   Over 12,000 children with more than 90% of them younger than 3 years old are hospitalized due to symptoms of drinking milk with melamine.

New 10-Yuan Note

The People’s Bank of China issued a commemorative banknote with a value of 10 yuan last Tuesday to mark the Beijing Olympic Games. This is not a typical Chinese note which features Mao in front because Mao is nowhere to be seen and was replaced by the Bird’s Nest. On the other side of the note, is an ancient Greek marble statue of a discus thrower. The PBOC will only print 6 million notes which would be circulated in the market. Thus, people queued Monday midnight to get the chance to get hold on one of these special notes.  

It’s bound to be a collector’s item and from what I heard it’s already worth RMB 500. I didn’t know about it until I saw it or else I would have waited with the throng of people just to get hold of one to keep. I’ll try the bank tomorrow and ask if they have one. Hopefully, they do as that’s one souvenir that I’m willing to keep.