From News, page 2, issue 337, Oct 15 2007
Translated by Zuo Maohong
Original article: [Chinese]

A sign at the Sijiaowei toll station of Huadu district in Guangzhou reads, "Duration of toll: October 1994- November 2044". Upon seeing this sign, Wang Zechu can't help but laugh. "Is this a joke? The law clearly limits toll durations to 30 years..."

Wang Zechu is a member of the Guangdong Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and has been fighting violators of toll charge regulations for the past 10 years. The Sijiaowei toll station on the Siyang strip of highway, stretches over 6 kilometers through Sijiaowei County. This road was first funded by the local government, but afterwards, it became a toll road owned by a joint venture with a concession period of 50 years. No one knows how many such toll stations there are in China.

50 Years of Toll Charges

The Sijiaowei toll station began to charge vehicles traveling through it after being approved by the Guangdong Provincial Price Bureau in 1996. The tolls were to be in effect from October 1994, when the Siyang segment started operation, to October 2044.

According to Regulations on Toll Road Administration, toll roads are classified into two types: non-profitable, backed by government organs responsible for financing and repaying the debts; and profitable, build-operate-transfer (BOT) models. The durations of toll charges of these two types are respectively 15 years and 25 years, and can be prolonged by 5 years in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government in Midwest China. The Siyang segment was built by the Huadu government and was originally of the first type.

Data have shown that the Siyang segment is only 6.408 kilometers long and the total amount of investment is merely 52.23 million yuan.

Guangdong province is the pioneer of building roads by loans and charging to repay afterwards. The first toll station in the nation was first set up here in 1984. Over the next 20 plus years, the length of highways increased from 51,000 kilometers to 178,000. At the same time, however, the number of toll stations rose to 304. There are at least 9 toll stations levying charges for 50 years or even more like the one in Sijiaowei.