"Miandi" - No Ifs and Buts

by Li Zhurun

In striving to rid the city of air pollution, the Beijing Municipal Government has decided to ban "miandi" - those mini-vehicles painted in yellow which are used as taxis - that operate in the city and have them destroyed.

The "miandi", literally meaning "bread taxi" as in shape it resembles a loaf of bread, is popular among wage-earners in the city for charging less than what is known locally as "haodi" - "luxury taxis" or cars. But these "yellow bugs", as the "miandi" sometimes are called, are heavy polluters. The exhaust discharged by a "miandi" contains 2.46 times as much harmful gases as by a car when it runs at 40 km per hour, the normal speed for vehicles running in the city proper. The harmful contents in the exhaust would multiply - up to eight times - when it cruises slowly in search of customers. City officials say that "miandi" taxis are responsible for 15 percent of the air pollution monitored in the city although they account for a fraction - 1.4 percent - of all the automobiles in operation.

The municipal authorities have ordered destruction, by the end of March 1999, of all the 17,000 "miandi" taxis licensed for business before 1993. Those licensed later, numbering 3,000, will face the same fate before September 1999. City officials say that by then, there will no more "yellow bugs" to foul the Chinese capital, where air pollution has kept worsening, to an extent that calls for control actions without delay and at any cost.

Beijing will be venue for celebrations of the 50th founding anniversary of the People's Republic on October 1, 1999 and the return of Macao to China on December 20. Moreover, it is to host the 2002 World Students' Games and is applying for hosting the 2008 Olympics. Municipal officials have time and again stressed that the on-going crackdown on major polluters like "miandi" taxis is not only meant for the health of the city's more than 10 million residents but also concerns the country's national and international image.

No ifs and buts . In accordance with instructions of the State Council, China's highest governing body, automobiles banned for causing air pollution must not be resold, in part or entirety.

At Shougang Company, a major iron and steel complex located in the western suburbs of Beijing, an abandoned "miandi" is to be torn apart and recycled. The first step is to remove from the abandoned vehicle non-metal parts such as the tires, wind shield, steering wheel and sponge cushions, empty its oil tank of petrol, and clean its engine of the lubricants. Then the metal "shell" is crushed by a hammer many tons in weight that hangs from a horizontal crane - more or less the same way as an empty pop can is crushed when trampled underfoot. The flattened "shell" of the vehicle is then cut into pieces by a powerful shearing machine and the pieces are fed into one of Shougan's copula furnaces for recycling.

The end product of the recycling process at Shougang is no more than low-quality iron because there are too many alien matters in the metal pieces. Besides, the company has had to assign additional guards to protect anything in the abandoned vehicles from being stolen as many things in them - their engines and tires, for example - are still usable. "In plain words," says the popular newspaper "Beijing Youth Daily," "Shougang has no profit to gain, and the task it is performing amounts to a free contribution to the national capital in its fight to win back the blue sky."

The Beijing Municipal Government banned "miandis" on December 21. By December 23, 2,000 abandoned "miandis" had been driven to Shougang for destruction and recycling, and the number is expected to exceed 10,000 in early January.

Taxi companies and "miandi" drivers are cooperative even though no compensation is made for their vehicles designated for destruction. "We have to be responsible for our city and the health of our customers," Zhao Zhenkun, manager of a taxi company, says.

Zhao's company owns nearly 400 "miandi" taxis. "According to design, most of the vehicles should be abandoned now after so many years in service," he says.

Like other taxi companies in the Chinese capital, Zhao's will use environmentally friendly cars to replace the "miandi" taxis. That means, among other things, the company's "miandi" drivers, now laid off, will return to jobs over the next few months.

"I am quite optimistic about my future," says Liu, a driver, who has worked on a "miandi" taxi for six years. "A Volkswagen Santana-2000 will surely bring in more money than my old 'miandi'."