Gasgoo.com (Shanghai December 5) - Statistics from the Ministry of Public Security's Transport Administration Bureau show that there are over 104 million automobiles on China's roads as of November, chinanews.com reported today. The statistics also reveal that the number of authorized drivers has now reached 234 million. Looking at these results, it is clear that many cities in China have embraced the automobile.

There were 16.28 million new vehicles in China this year, growing 7.86 percent from last year. Automobiles alone made up 13.61 million of that amount, increasing 14.98 percent. The amount of automobiles finally surpassed motorcycles in October, the statistics show, signifying that automobiles are well on their way to becoming the country's preferred choice of transport. Personal and household owners account for 74.17 percent of all automobiles driven.

Currently 14 cities have over one million vehicles on their roads. Beijing leads the pack with 4.72 million. Ten of those cities, including the provincial capitals of Nanning (Guangxi), Hohhot (Inner Mongolia), Ürümqi (Xinjiang), Hefei (Anhui), Yinchuan (Ningxia), Changsha (Hunan), Xining (Qinghai) and Fuzhou (Fujian), have seen their vehicle numbers increase over 20 percent this year. If using the international standard of 16 sedans for every 100 households to judge, several of China's cities are firmly in the automobile age.