Shanghai Inner Ring Number Plate Price & Registration Process

[euphonius]

...There is an excellent Google map that marks those forbidden roads: http://ditu.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...6&ll=31.237756

Excellent map, Milton! Very useful.

As for our new friend dewsnap in Minhang, there should be no problem using the yellow "no access inner ring" plate in his part of town, though this will render all of downtown Shanghai as forbidden fruit.

As we've discussed many times before in MCM, the maximum fine for riding a 沪C plate inside the ring is 200 RMB, or about US$30, and as long as your plate is legal it's unlikely the bike will be confiscated. You'll just be fined (if the officer is in that kinda mood) and sent on your way. OK, do the math -- it would take a hell of a lot of 200 RMB fines to approach 45000 RMB (225 times, to be exact, or once a day for almost 8 months). If I lived in Pudong or Minhang and had no need to ride inside the ring, that's surely what I'd do. I have the Inner Ring plate because that's where I live (and, as discussed ad nauseum, the 沪A plate hopefully appreciates in value...). But if I lived and worked outside the ring, I could think of few things more unsatisfying that motorcycling INTO Shanghai downtown. The awesome Shanghai metro will take you almost anywhere for under US$1 a trip.

cheers