
Originally Posted by
euphonius
Another word of caution about plates in Shanghai: The police are taking a particularly dim view of fake and cloned plates. How extreme? Yang Jie, proprietor of the Huageng Peugeot shop in Yuyao Lu, told me that one of his clients -- a Taiwanese guy who I've met -- was jailed for 15 days late in 2012 after being stopped on his scooter with fake plates at a routine traffic check. When I expressed skepticism, Yang showed me the traffic offenders' jail; it's the big Traffic Police building right across the street from his shop.
Yes, that's right: 15 days in a Shanghai jail for being discovered with fake plates. This is not apocryphal. The risk is real. I'm not saying this is right or wrong, or defending it. It's just real.
cheers