From 7am on April 1, parking fees for the western section of Zhongguancun (中关村西区), Xidan (西单), Financial Street (金融街) and other core non-residential districts (making 13 in all), will rise. This encompasses 70,000 parking spaces; half of these are underground, and around 3,000 ones are on the side of the road. The Beijing News photo shows someone changing the parking sign with the new rates near Xidan’s Joy City mall.
The highest fee for during the day is 15 yuan per hour.
The China Daily reported in February that higher parking fees unlikely to solve traffic problems.
On bottom right, an interesting Q&A with an old man who has designed several “capsule apartments” by renovating rented property. Although he doesn’t expect to see the tens of thousands of yuan that he invested back, he wants to leave something behind for younger, “migrating” generation, before he dies.
- The Beijing News (Chinese): Parking prices starting to rise
- The Beijing News (Chinese): Capsule apartments have been built, but no-one has come to live here
- People’s Daily Online: 78-year-old man constructs 8 “capsule apartments” for graduates