Society

Win or lose, entrants happy with the luck of the draw

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-27 06:55

Liu Fang, 30, is a doctoral student at a university in Beijing.

Fortune favored me again in the car license plate lottery on Wednesday.

I made up my mind to buy a car in October 2010, when I stood in the wind for half an hour but failed to get a taxi to take my sick mother to a hospital.

I won't waste my time driving it on Beijing roads in peak hour, but I guess I have to buy one for those times when I will really need it.

After spending two months visiting Beijing's

4S shops, I found the perfect car for me but missed out on it because the "car rush" had begun.

On Dec 23, 2010, the Beijing municipal government released new measures to reduce the number of new vehicles.

And during the two weeks before the policy came out, all the vehicles in the city were snapped up at high prices.

I preferred not to pay the 30,000 yuan ($4,557) added to the price for customers who wanted to complete the deal before Dec 23.

So I lost my chance. But my opportunity came this week.

I registered at the car plate lottery website and forgot the whole matter completely, until I saw the live coverage of the lottery draw this morning on a television in the subway.

As soon as I arrived at my office, I logged in and checked the result and found myself among the 17,600 lucky people.

From the math, the possibility of winning a license plate this time was at its highest, because the number of registered applicants keeps increasing while the number of winners remains at 17,600 each month.

Although experts said there was no chance that a man could lose every time, I believe the hopes of many individuals are fading quickly.

Liu Fang was talking to Cheng Yingqi.

Tong Meng, 28, is a professional in the media industry in Beijing.

My failure in this month's auto license draw actually comes as a kind of relief.

I will get married in May 2012. The high housing prices in the city are beyond me, so I plan to buy a car first as a wedding gift for my bride-to-be.

With the way my finances are, the dream could be realized in February next year. I believe at that time I will have enough savings to buy my favorite car. Also, February is when car prices will be lower than they are at other times.

But my hopes were smashed when Beijing announced in December that licenses of new vehicles would be issued through a lottery.

I am afraid that when I am ready to buy a car, I may not be lucky enough to get a license plate.

That is why I joined the hundreds of thousands of people applying for license plates this month.

I was really in two minds before the result of the draw came out.

Of course, I wanted to win like everyone else, but deep inside I kind of hoped that I wouldn't win this time because I can't afford a car right now. If I had won, I would have had to buy a car within six months, much earlier than I had planned.

So when the result came out and I was not a lucky dog, I felt relaxed, though I also felt a little nervous about the future. What if I keep losing in future draws?

Such mixed feelings might last until the day, when I already know I have enough money to buy a car, that I win a license plate.

Tong Meng was talking to Jin Zhu.

(China Daily 01/27/2011 page5)