At the end of 2005, Beijing had 15.38 million permanent residents.

In the meantime, its total number of private cars climbed 18.7 percent over the 2004 figure, the municipal bureau of statistics said in a latest report on the city's economic growth.

It said Beijing's total number of civil vehicles reached 2.146 million last year, including 1.308 million sedan cars.

These were up 14.7 percent and 19.3 percent respectively over the 2004 volumes and were 1.1 times and 1.7 times over the 2000 figures, it said.

Industry insiders predicted China's car ownership had topped 30million units by the end of 2005, thanks to the country's fast-growing auto industry. Enditem