China shopping centre builds 'car park for women'

The shopping centre hopes to appeal to China's women drivers

A shopping centre in China's Hebei province has built a car park with wider spaces that it says is designed especially to suit women drivers.

The women-only car park in Shijiazhuang city is also painted in pink and light purple to appeal to female tastes.

Official Wang Zheng told AFP news agency the car park was meant to cater to women's "strong sense of colour and different sense of distance".

The parking bays are one metre (3ft) wider than normal spaces, he said.

The Wanxiang-Tiancheng shopping centre had also "installed signs and security monitoring equipment that corresponded more to women's needs", he said.

The Global Times website says female parking attendants have been trained to help guide women drivers into their parking spaces. The bays also have extra lighting.

Driving in China is a dangerous activity, with more than 200 deaths in road accidents each day last year, AFP reports, citing police statistics.

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Your comments

Having spent many years living and driving in Hong Kong I can understand the concept. I can spend ages queuing behind someone while they park in a normal car park, into a space I seem to be able to get into first time of asking.
Colin Brelsford, Hong Kong

I think that there's no harm in doing so. Many of my female friends laugh about how difficult they find parking, but I never hear it from my male friends!
Helen, Manchester, UK

I think the decision has both good and bad points. I think its a bit insulting to us women drivers to say that we are useless at parking and so we need bigger spaces. (In our household it has been the male of the species who has had the accidents whilst parking and cost rather a lot of money.) The fact is, the physical size of cars has been increasing for years, yet the actual size of parking spaces has not changed at all. And why change the colour of the "white" lines?? Rather pointless! If road accidents cause so many deaths in China, maybe introduce proper driving lessons, more stringent road rules and stiffer penalties for dangerous driving.
Ferryjane, Dundee, Scotland

There is no need to build separate lots for women. Its is sexist and condescending. There are men who can benefit from wider spots just like there are women who can stop on a dime!
Almudena de la Morena, Austin, USA

This may be a nice move, but what will it achieve? One thing is for sure, this will reduce the parking skills of women drivers in China.
Rom Vargas, Sorsogon, Philippines

How damned patronizing can you get? Are the women of China different from those of the rest of the world, who don't require special parking facilities? Maybe better driving instructors are required, not special parking lots.
Maureen Lum, Burwood, Victoria, Australia

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