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Cabbage Tolls

« H E Liuzhou Life :: Food and Drink :: Travel :: email
posted Sunday, 24 February 2008

It is impossible to travel by road in China without running into one of these every few miles.

 Tollgate

At the edge of every town drivers are charged to use the road to the next town. Often there are toll booths in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason. So, a journey can work out a lot more expensive than you might have planned for.

Tollgate Girl

CabbageHowever, I have worked out how to get through the tool gates for free. It seems that, in order to ensure supplies of food from the countryside to the cities, vehicles carrying vegetables can travel toll free.

So, I’m going to buy a cabbage and display it every time they stop me. The regulations don’t seem to mention how much vegetation I have to carry.
 
UPDATE: 28th Feb 2008.
 
A few days after posting this, I discover that 16 provinces, mainly in the north have been investigated by the National Audit Administration and found to have set up 158 illegal tollgates on 100 different roads and overcharged by a total of almost 15 billion Yuan! (USD $2 billion, £1 billion €1.3 billion) Twelve provinces including Shandong and Beijing have 35 privately owned roads which charge toll fees. These have charged up to ten times the original investment. A lot of cabbages.

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comments (3)


1. Jerry left...
Thursday, 28 February 2008 3:56 am

While driving through Illinois, the same thing; every few miles a toll booth. I don't think the cabbage thing will work, let us know! LOL


2. Jerry left...
Friday, 29 February 2008 3:02 am

15B rmb, I wonder what the set-up cost/payback on investment time is.!


3. liuzhou left...
Saturday, 1 March 2008 11:59 am :: http://liuzhou.blog-city.com

The story is picked up here (with higher figures than reported in the Chinese news story I read.)