Cars were so uncommon to people outside of Beijing that they would pay to have their picture taken with a car as a memento or proof to others that they saw a car and they do exist. Motor vehicle production didn’t really pick up until the early 90’s. Before that, manufacturers were only making a couple hundred thousand cars per year in the entire country.
At least that’s how I interpreted it after reading about the Chinese auto market history on Wikipedia and combining it with my own personal history with computers while growing up in a rural town in the US.
A year after China ended its harsh COVID policies, it’s struggling to rebound (www.opb.org)
Cross-posted from: beehaw.org/post/10706886