On August 18 at 8:30, after having waited in line for half an hour, Wang Yu, an employee of a communications equipment manufacturing firm in Shenzhen’s Nanshan Disctrict, was still unable to fill up his gas tank.

Guangzhou and Shenzhen have been faced with a lack of refined oil for quite some time now. Although some experts refuse to describe the situation as an “oil shortage”, consumers are constantly confronted with the question of whether or not they will be able to fuel up their cars.

According to the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), the oil shortage was caused by the typhoon Matsa, which swept across eastern China in the beginning of August. Many ports suspended shipments, leaving southern regions that rely heavily on oil supplied from the North, such as Guangdong, , seriously oil-thirsty. Yichao Wang (VS ‘06) writes in Beijing’s Caijing Magazine.

Read the article.