In shanghai traffic vehicles, cars or automobiles used to think of sedan chair. It is said that automobile-using was for convenience of patient-examination in 1901 when some foreign residents introduced automobiles into Shanghai from abroad. In that year, a Hungarian man named Liens brought two automobiles into Shanghai. From then on, China had her first automobile.

At that time, a foreign doctor visited patients by automobile. These two autos were imported from America and produced in American Ford Automobile Cooperation (some one believed they came from Benz in Germany). There was one seat in the front for drivers and double seats in the back for passengers, but there were no any windshields in the front of the automobile. Nowadays, it is considered to be the rare and antique car. Such a buster with a strange style and high speed as well as the harsh sounds from trumpets threatened many passersby. On January 30, 1902, someone applied for auto license plate.

Currently, People call bus as “巴士”and taxi as “泰克西”. This pronunciations are directly from English ones except automobile which in Chinese is “轿车”. Automobile initially used in Shanghai developed very fast! In 1903, there were only 5 autos in 1903, in 1908 119 autos and in 1912 1400 autos. The streets were not only for horse. To fit the need of automobile, the road was broadened and prolonged. Benz, Ford, Renault Cars are running on the road at present.

The foreign businessmen were the earlier owners of the automobile; they brought autos successively into Shanghai or spoke for importing autos. Under the influence of western influence, Shanghai local people gradually became the major auto-buyers. It was reported that movie star Yang Naimei was the earliest female to drive her private auto. Those aristocratic students naturally did not wanna lag behind. Such as the students of Saint-John University, most of these students were rich. At each weekend, the cars at the gate of the campus were so many that no any space for stop and one special Indian traffic policeman was needed for traffic operation.

Cars realized the possibility of going afar. People liking wandering chose auto instead of carriage. On holidays, they drove the cars to have fun around Jing’an Temple. In 1920s, the number of the cars was exploded, but the people who were qualified to have cars were still those foreigners and senior white-collars working in foreign banks. The western-style buildings, automobiles and telephones were representatives of the high-level life at that time. The automobile pictures used to be printed onto the papers for advertising and sales promotion. Generally, the commoners in Shanghai wearing the western suits and smoking the cigars when they read the papers have became the classical image in modern Shanghai history.

As the increase of auto number, the training and check on drivers became more important. According to a paper report, the check was categorized into oral examination and driving show. The content of oral examination includes the traffic rules, urban geography and common sense of machine. The driving show is comprised of stake-avoid checking and road-driving checking. Additionally, the physical check is also kept for avoiding the color blindness and the over-short-sight. The examinee should leave their fingerprints.