Focus

Car owners count the ways to their personalized plates

By Wang Wen (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-24 07:50

Many who queue outside the offices of local transport authorities say they are looking for lucky and favorite numbers made available after a new policy was introduced in October 2008.

"With the new regulations, I honestly don't think we will face the kind of embarrassment we saw in 2002," said Zhang Jingchun, spokesman for the Beijing traffic management bureau.

The changes leave little room for distasteful plates such as USA-911 and are aimed at crimping the black market in personalized car plates, Zhang insisted.

However, the restrictions have not hindered the drive for numeric creativity.

In Beijing, the first customized car plate issued was NV8888. This was related to the lucky combination of the opening of the Beijing Olympics at 8 pm on Aug 8, 2008.

Many car owners, however, have their own interpretation of their favorite numbers.

Car owners count the ways to their personalized plates

Wang Hao, a Shanghai native who works in Beijing, stood in a long queue on Oct 6, 2008. He planned his car plate as soon as he heard about the vanity plates being made available the month before.

"I thought the best choice was NB (which sounds like niu bi, Chinese slang for bull's genitals, attributable to a superior person) and my birth date," said Wang.

After a long wait Wang got his dream plate.

"Those 8s and 6s (both are seen as lucky numbers by most Chinese) are just numbers to me," Gao Hongbo, a well-known soccer coach, also told China Daily at the time.

"My family and I picked numbers and letters that are meaningful to us," he said.

Gao said his "N168B0" includes his first name and the lucky numbers of his wife and son.

Chen Jingxi, a 25-year-old white-collar worker in Beijing, bought a car in March 2009. He had a vanity plate number ready even before he bought the car.

"I envied people driving cars with vanity plates to show their character," said Chen. "I thought if I got a car one day, I would make the plate very different from others'."

Chen combined his birth date and name into a car plate. He said the plate was easy to remember and it was like a tag that the car was his.

"I was so lucky that the plate I wanted was still available and it means that the plate is so special for me," said Chen.

He spent an entire day and more than 400 yuan in the hall of the vehicle administration to inspect the car and get his plate.

Chen got a temporary plate the day he visited the vehicle administration office. One week later, his permanent plate arrived.

He said he thinks getting a car plate in Beijing is cheap and easy, despite the long queues.

However, some people still choose to get plates through the traditional way because they think a week is too long to wait.

Xu Yue, who works for a website operator, bought his SUV in February and he wanted to choose a vanity plate for his SUV originally, but according to the regulation, he had to wait a week to get the plate.

"I could not wait a week to drive the SUV," said Xue. "After all, it is my first vehicle."

He decided to choose one from among 10 plates offered by the Beijing vehicle administration office. The plate starts with a P.

Fortunately, Xu got a very good plate, which contains his girlfriend's infant name and the last digit 8.

"I am really lucky to get the plate, although I did not choose a vanity plate as my friends did," Xu said.