SUVs still roaring up China's sales charts

Although demand for SUVs is slumping in most parts of the world, it remains strong in China. Sales rose by 40 per cent in the first four months of the year - more than double the growth rate for the passenger car market as a whole. Car imports have also nearly doubled. Many of these are large luxury cars.

"As a boy, I always dreamt of owning a big car," says Zhou Qiang, a real-estate executive in Beijing who bought a Hummer H1 at an auction two years ago and who is not worried about its oil-thirsty image. "There are plenty of other sources of pollution than cars, and life is short so we should enjoy ourselves anyway."