Panic to buy cars ahead of new Hangzhou rule

Thousands of panicked residents in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province rushed to car dealerships in a last-ditch attempt to buy vehicles, after the local government's sudden announcement of license restrictions set to take effect in less than five hours.

According to Transportation 91.8, a local radio station, cars were sold out in dealerships an hour after the announcement as people feared that vehicles purchased after the deadline would not be granted licenses.

Panicking residents stockpiled vehicles. One man on Tuesday demanded to buy 200 vans in one dealership, but instead setting it for 70, all the dealership had in its inventory.

The announcement came after several denials from the government over the past few months and enraged many local residents.

"Where is the credibility of our government if it told the public that the restriction was a rumor a few days before and then suddenly announced it?" the Xinhua News Agency posted on Weibo.

Other residents asked why the government kept it a secret and why it failed to put the policy out for public discussion before enforcing it.

Lu Xiande, deputy director of Hangzhou's transportation bureau, said that the government considered the information "too sensitive" for publication and that Hangzhou government was simply "borrowing experience" from other cities.

"The reply doesn't make sense. Restricting car licenses is far from sensitive and even if it is, there's no reason to keep it from the public," read one critique from news outlet people.com.cn.

Hangzhou is the sixth Chinese city to restrict car licenses after Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Guiyang.