Cost of licence plates and registration

[ZMC888]

Of course you can go somewhere else in China and buy a bike, but that bike must be registered to a person with a local ID card and therefore local hukou. Let's say a Beihai plate. Or to you if you are a foreigner with residency in that area working locally it can begrudgingly eventually be done.

Then this exact ID must be used again to transfer this out of province motorcycle to a new place of residence or a new owner, if the Gong An can be bothered with it, which in Shandong, probably they can't.

So yes, you could be riding around Weifang on a Beihai registered bike, on the name of someone from Beihai, or even your name if you once lived and worked there, much better than no plates, for sure. Biggest problem will be when they insist on seeing your ID card to renew the insurance or do the bi-annual inspection. Also that the law states you must put local plates on the bike within a certain time frame, so you could get caught out in this way, unlikely in 2nd/3rd tier Shandong but not impossible in a pre Chinese New Year purge.

in other words most likely your bike can only be properly legal for a very limited time.

[Graham]

Hi ZMC,
So the bike need to registered to some one who have a hukou in that city/area?
I did not know this.
So as my wife is from Harbin, so even the Weifang bike can't be registered to her in Weifang, as her hukou is from Harbin?

One step as a time, , , , , ,

Gra.

[ZMC888]

Yes, as far as I understand it each ID card states the hukou of the person, and you need to be a local to register a vehicle in that area.

It's China, red tape goes with the game.

[ChinaV]

I don't think the Hukou matters, plenty of people move to other cities and buy cars and motos. My wife has a car and motorcycle in Guangdong and her hukou is Hubei.

Cheers!
ChinaV

[TB-Racing]

as I understand it each ID card states the hukou of the person, and you need to be a local to register a vehicle in that area. .

Chinese nationals can apply for a one year temporary residence in most provinces (ok, may be not in the big T....) in ML China and purchase and register a motor vehicle (car / motorbike), thats what some of my employees are doing in various Chinese provinces.....

[Graham]

Thanks all for taking the time to give some ideas to the topic.
I think one needs to head off down to the traffic organ :) and get it from a few different horses.
Then do a majority wins scenario, hoping that more than less know what they are telling you is right.
But with the proviso, the majority could most certainly be wrong :)

Otherwise it may be time to print out a few Tabao pages, and head off to the local sellers.

Gra.