Apologies if this question has been asked before or is one of those things that delve into quagmires of China complexities and legalities. But I'm genuinely curious about this issue, or if anyone has actually tried it.

The question is whether a bike can be purchased in one province and registered in another. For example, I recall here recently that a person bought a bike in Chongqing (where many of the best models can be found) and then transported it to Nanjing on the train. In this case, I would assume the bike ended up being registered in Nanjing since that's where the poster lived. But how did this actually work?

What I'm looking into is purchasing a new bike in Zhejiang with a fapiao of ownership, preferably a YVR-250 or a similar model, riding it across the provincial border into Shanghai, and then registering it using a suburban C plate where most of my riding would be done and my housing would be registered.

Zhejiang is another great province for bike purchasing, and the price goes down substantially if you buy a bike there, as opposed to within Shanghai province. But if it's not possible to do this, I'd end up paying more and just buying locally.