Illegal parking management companies are still operating in Chaoyang's Central Business District (CBD), even though traffic authorities claim they have shut down 24 illegal parking lots in the past month in a parking regulation campaign.

The CBD became Beijing's first "model area for parking order regulation" on Wednesday, according to the Chaoyang District Commission of Transport on Thursday. Some 24 illegal parking lots, including several on Jinhui Lu and Jingwen Jie, have been shut down, and the district government has spent 15 million yuan (US$2.32 million) since March on traffic equipment improvements to regulate the area's parking resources, according to the commission.

"For example, we are installing automatic camera capture systems along the roads, which will take shots of illegally parked vehicles every five minutes and transmit their images to our system," said Su Chaowei, a media department employee with the district commission.

Legal companies have taken over from the illegal ones that used to manage many lots, yet problems persist.

"People from the illegal parking management company still come here every day, although traffic authorities have driven them out," said employee Wu Chunlei, who works for the Beijing Jindi Tonglian Parking Management Company, which took over a Jingwen Jie parking lot's management two weeks ago.

The employees from the previous company try to profit off of drivers searching for parking spots by encouraging them to park in non-parking areas for a negotiable price, Wu said.

"They have connections to the local traffic regulation teams, which share their illegal earnings. That's why those who park illegally here don't get fined," he told the Global Times.