AI
Monday, June 06, 2005 8:48:33 PM
Shanghai taxis with "unlucky" plates taken off road during university exams
Taxi sign in Shanghai.
FP/File/Liu Jin)
1 hour, 27 minutes ago
SHANGHAI (AFP) - Taxis with "unlucky" number plates in Shanghai will stop operating during university entrance exams this week to appease superstitious parents, state media said.
"All cabs with number plates ending with the number 'four', which shares the same pronunciation as 'failure' in the Shanghai dialect, will not be used," Shanghai's biggest taxi company Shanghai Dazhong was cited as saying on the China Daily's website.
"Lots of parents refuse to use cabs with number plates they consider unlucky, and we've seen many of them get angry at us because we have used them to carry their children in past years," said Zhao Leping, head of the company.
It was not clear how many taxis would stop operating.
Another big taxi company in the city, Shanghai NGS Taxi, said 20 percent of its clients who booked cars during the examination period requested the firm not to send "unlucky" vehicles.
The national university entrance examination, seen as the most crucial event in Chinese youngsters' lives, will take place from Tuesday to Thursday this week. Some 130,000 students will sit the exam in Shanghai.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050606/od_afp/chinataxisuperstition_050606231452;_ylt=Am05RxEoMbp7TFWi...
Taxi sign in Shanghai.
FP/File/Liu Jin)
1 hour, 27 minutes ago
SHANGHAI (AFP) - Taxis with "unlucky" number plates in Shanghai will stop operating during university entrance exams this week to appease superstitious parents, state media said.
"All cabs with number plates ending with the number 'four', which shares the same pronunciation as 'failure' in the Shanghai dialect, will not be used," Shanghai's biggest taxi company Shanghai Dazhong was cited as saying on the China Daily's website.
"Lots of parents refuse to use cabs with number plates they consider unlucky, and we've seen many of them get angry at us because we have used them to carry their children in past years," said Zhao Leping, head of the company.
It was not clear how many taxis would stop operating.
Another big taxi company in the city, Shanghai NGS Taxi, said 20 percent of its clients who booked cars during the examination period requested the firm not to send "unlucky" vehicles.
The national university entrance examination, seen as the most crucial event in Chinese youngsters' lives, will take place from Tuesday to Thursday this week. Some 130,000 students will sit the exam in Shanghai.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050606/od_afp/chinataxisuperstition_050606231452;_ylt=Am05RxEoMbp7TFWi...
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