Beijing lacks 400,000 parking spaces, Zhao Fengtong, vice mayor of the Beijing Municipal government, said on Thursday.

With car ownership rocketing to the current figure of more than two million cars, not to mention more than 300,000 more cars annually, Beijing is struggling to keep up.

Besides building more underground parking lots and parking buildings, Beijing should create an internet parking information system showing all the available public parking spaces, suggested Li Xun, deputy director of China Academy of Urban Planning and Design.

Beijing announced earlier last year that 26 free or low-cost large-scale parking lots will be built near subway and bus stops to encourage drivers to use public transport in downtown Beijing.

Traffic problems topped this year's list of suggestions from representatives of the municipal people's congress. Traffic has been the number one issue for the last five years, said officials of the municipal people's congress.

(Xinhua News Agency February 7, 2007)