Driving ambition

There was a time when Chinese boys wanted to be one of only three things when they grew up: a doctor, a lawyer or Yao Ming. Not any more.

"I want to be a car dealer," says Xia Bohan, a Shanghai elementary school student who celebrated his eighth birthday on Saturday with several friends, a grey plastic "Batcycle" and more than 100 toy cars.

"I want to go to the Shanghai motor show to look inside the concept cars and see the new models you can't see on the street. But my dad won't take me." When Bohan was 3 years old, his teachers used to call him "the car doctor".