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Kandy Wong

To the roughly 10,000 motorcycle taxi drivers in Chongqing, a complete prohibition of the business is taking away their bread and butter.
Motorcycle taxis, strictly speaking, are an illegal business on the mainland, with a penalty of 1,500 yuan (HK$1,702) imposed on drivers caught carrying a passenger.
Drivers such as Zheng Dalong still enjoy their job, apart from the occasional meeting with the police.
'As this concerns our employment, the police sometimes are quite lenient with us,' said Zheng, who has worked the roads for more than 20 years. 'But when the police enforce the policy strictly, we will be fined.'
Zheng said his job allowed him more free time and he could earn about 3,000 yuan per month, higher than a normal taxi driver, who earns about 1,000 yuan.
He paid 7,000 yuan for his three-year-old Yamaha motorcycle, which is produced by a joint venture between Chongqing's biggest motorcycle maker, China South Industries Group Corp, and Japan's Yamaha.
'I think the motorcycle functions well,' he said. 'The engine is good.'
It is not difficult to find a motorcycle taxi in areas around Chongqing's city centre, but in other areas, such as Yuzhong, they are scarce.  
Zheng said people still liked to take a motorcycle taxi during peak periods, when the two-wheeled vehicles could avoid the worst traffic jams.
The motorcycle-making industry employs three million people on the mainland and produced 200 billion yuan worth of motorcycles last year.
Executives gathered in Chongqing recently to discuss how to transform the industry from 'big' to 'strong'. China has already transformed itself from a nation of bicycles to the world's biggest car market, but sales of two-wheeled vehicles are still impressive. 
Compared with total motorcycle sales of 27.5 million units last year, including exports, just 9.38 million cars were sold on the mainland.   
Across the strait, Taiwan is an island of motorcycles. With a population of 23 million people, it had more than 12 million motorcycles on its streets at the end of last year.
While on the mainland motorcycles are used by people for work, many Taiwanese own one for personal use and also own a car for long-distance trips.
The Taiwanese government does not encourage ownership of motorcycles, owing to the pollution and high accident rate reportedly associated with the vehicles.
But the government does subsidise the industry, with NT$150 million (HK$35.85 million) budgeted for the development of more environment-friendly electric motorcycles.



Chongqing hub for two-wheeled industry, jobs