Rising gas prices (or not)

So, you might complain about rising gas prices in the USA. I would probably complain too. China's gas prices are fixed by the central government, so pretty much anywhere you go, you pay the same price (so the Sinopec on one corner doesn't beat the China Petrol on the other). There are no fuel taxes, but since the government sets the price, they set the "profit" or "loss" of the oil company, which is largely owned by the government, but has been put on the market so that private investors can buy stock. This has some pros and cons. The pros are that the fuel prices do not fluctuate wildly like they can where the price is set by the "market", like in the USA. Since fuel taxes are low in the USA, we really see huge fluctuations since almost all of the price is reflected in the price of oil. European markets, where fuel taxes are much higher don't feel as much brunt (ie prices don't rise or fall by the same proportion) because their price at the pump includes some very high taxes...see http://www.cnbc.com/id/24793710 . Chinese drivers haven't seen much of the major recent increases because the Chinese government has not recently changed prices. This results in losses (rather than profits) for the Chinese oil companies (sorry dad that you just bought Sinopec). Currently, the price of a gallon is about $2.80. So what is a Chinese oil company to do? Well, rather than sell as much as they can at a loss, they are known to restrict supply by temporarily closing stations and thus jamming others. This happens periodically and happened a couple of weeks ago (along with the earthquake demanding some energy rationing). The result is rather than pay market price, drivers are forced to wait for up to 3 hours in embargo style lines. This makes it pretty inconvenient to drive a car, but also ride a bike since the lines generally spill throughout the road network, including the bike lane. Well, next time you have to pay $4 a gallon, consider paying $2.80 and having to wait several hours in your car for a fill-up or for a rationed few gallons. I would recommend driving less if you can, or getting a more fuel efficient car.