Statistics from the Ministry of Public Security's transport administration bureau showed that there?were over 104 million automobiles on China's roads as of November.

The number of authorized drivers has reached 234 million, according to the latest figures.

There were 16.28 million new vehicles in the country, increasing 7.86 percent from last year. Automobiles alone made up 13.61 million of that amount, up 14.98 percent year-on-year. The number of automobiles surpassed motorcycles in October, the statistics showed, signaling that automobiles are well on their way to becoming the country's preferred choice of transport. Personal and household owners accounted for 74.17 percent of all automobiles driven.

According to the latest data, 14 cities have over one million vehicles on their roads. Beijing leads the pack with 4.72 million. Ten of those cities, including the provincial capitals of Nanning (Guangxi), Hohhot (Inner Mongolia), ürümqi (Xinjiang), Hefei (Anhui), Yinchuan (Ningxia), Changsha (Hunan), Xining (Qinghai) and Fuzhou (Fujian), have seen their vehicle numbers increase more than 20 percent this year. Judging from the international standard of 16 sedans for every 100 households, several of China's cities are firmly in the automobile age.