Lin Xinru becomes Pingtan's first owner of a local vehicle registration plate on Jan 6, after the county receives approval to register vehicles.

Lin Xinru became Pingtan's first owner of a local vehicle registration plate on Jan 6, after the county received approval to register vehicles.

The Traffic Management Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security recently granted Pingtan the privilege of city-level vehicles administration, and allocated plates - featuring the Chinese character for Min (which means Fujian) and the letter K – to Pingtan cars.

Lin received his registration plate, Min-K 50123, in a lottery on Monday, and he said he had not expected to be the first owner of a local plate.

"It is absolutely a coincidence. I just bought my car last month," he said.

The local public security bureau said a total of 36 car owners got license plates on Monday.

The bureau also said that private car owners who have registered their cars in Fuzhou are free to decide if they would like to change to local plates. But vehicles belonging to government agencies and public institutions, and large and medium-sized buses and school buses are required to use local plates so as to facilitate the management of local vehicles.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Niva Whyman