Last year there were 4.1 cars for every 100 households on the average in China's capital city, the latest edition of the China Consumer Journal reported.
According to figures released by the city's statistics bureau, the local household automobile market expanded 70.8 percent in 2002 over the previous year.
Meanwhile, transportation and telecommunications became the third largest aspect of daily expenditure for Beijing's urban residents, next only to food and education.
Each Beijing urban resident spent an average US$153 on transportation and telecommunications in 2002, which soared by 65.4 percent over the previous year.
Out that figure, some US$82 was spent exclusively on transportation, increasing 1.5 times over that of a year ago.
(People's Daily March 1, 2003)