Life in the ancient Chinese capital passing time along alleyways hundreds of years old, asimple life of long conversations with neighbors along willow-lined lakes. But this is the realBeijing, the one that most of more than 15 million residents must endure every day. Once upona time, Beijing may have been a city of bicycles, but today tens of thousands of new cars hit thestreets every week.“The municipal and even the central government are considering the long-term controlmeasures. They are considering controlling the photochemical smog, the haze problem, the morecomplex problem in the longer term.”While one arm of the government is working to fight pollution, another focused oneconomic development is encouraging people to buy offering tax breaks and subsidies. Forty tofifty Mazdas roar out of this dealership every day. Newly-weds Jia Zhiping and his wife havepicked out this red one. It’s their very first car. He is not happy to join the traffic congestion but is also optimistic about the possibilities.“I think public transport should be improved. Car owners can then opt to sometimes takepublic transport. And this will also discourage those considering buying a car from purchasing.”But meanwhile customers are buying averagely faster than dealerships can roll them out.Here after waiting some times months for their purchase, new owners come to pick up theircars fresh out of the factory floor. For many Chinese, a car represents modernity, and for thegovernment there is feeling Beijing as a modern city should see plenty of traffic.“I think they are comparing the megacities in China, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou withTokyo, London and Los Angeles, they have even more cars on the street.”China has been supportive of hybrid and embedded power car development. And thegovernment is always expanding the subway and highway system here, recently even encouraging people to get back on bicycles.“So you have all these measures to cut traffic and if you decide to take public transportation,you can escape the traffic. But for the moment, no one will be able to escape the pollution.”