Getting legal: Registering my JH600 in Shanghai

[euphonius]

We reserved a full day for actual registration, delayed by one day so I could retake my driver's license exam. This time I passed, and on Friday 11 June we caravaned out to Pudong, an hourlong drive that was my first official ride in Shanghai. By the time we got there I was drenched in sweat in my riding gear. All the Gear, All the Time.





So here's an inside look at the registration office -- actually one of about six different offices at the registration center where we had to do our rounds. This was the tax office, where I forked over 10% of the purchase price (minus the 17% VAT that was included in the sale price from Jialing). The bloke in prison stripes is our fixer, who I calculate saved us about 4 hours there.



Can't be registered without a photograph, which is included in your registration book. This guy was able to shoot with one hand and hold an ice cream in the other.



More vermilion imprints of the VIN and engine identification number.



Did you know there is a rule that all vehicles in China must display the brand name in Chinese on both flanks? But my bike is the taller "European edition" made for sale for apelike foreigners in the west where Chinese characters would only confuse the primitives there. No worries. Mister Stencil Man to the rescue!



There we have it. This must be a 嘉陵! It says so right on the tank!



Believe it or not, my bike also had to be measured to ensure that it was the same size as the specifications listed in the roadworthiness certificate, which was supplied by the manufacturer. So here comes an inspector with his measuring tape.



Then a final 360-degree lookaround by yet another inspector, whose comment was: "Nice bike. This is the best bike made in China. But it's no Harley." I told him he was welcome to give her a spin, and that this might change his opinion. He declined, saying, as most Chinese do: "It's too tall for me. Harleys fit us Chinese better." OK, so now we have the benchmark for motorcycle quality: Not too tall.



Now off to yet another office where all the various certificates, documents, receipts, approvals and photographs are brought together for a final submission. There were several other bikes being plated that day, including this Regal Raptor. We were in this office for a hour.



And we reach the final act: The selection of a plate number and issuance of new plates. But didn't I buy an existing plate on the open market? Well, no. What I bought was the plate permit -- permission to possess and use a plate. When it comes to plating, this permit is submitted and you go to this big hall where there are three chambers with touch-screen machines that look a bit like slot machines. You touch the screen to activate, then wave a bar-code receipt in front of a scanner, and it then sets up a random number generator. You touch the screen again and the numbers start whizzing furiously by -- far too fast to see. You have 90 seconds to touch the screen again to freeze the spinning and the system presents you with six randomly generated plate number choices. At this point you have another 90 seconds to make your selection. In other words, you control the point at which the random number generator generates the six number from which you will choose. You then choose the most auspicious of the six. The process is called 6选, which perhaps was inspired by the Pick Six lottery back in New York.

I made my choice, and the machine spat out a receipt printed with with my data and the number I selected.





With this we were able to go and retrieve my precious 沪A plates!



I'd like to say the process ended here, but that would have been too easy. We were now, to use ChinaV's preferred term, punished with a two-hour wait in a sweltering waiting room. We don't really know what we were waiting for, but wait we did. We got to sit there watching hundreds of available plate numbers scroll by on big digital readouts.





Actually, this is the document that we were waiting for.



Finally the moment of truth -- actually affixing the plates to my bike, a privilege I gave to Xiao Fan.



And we are legal!



If anyone has further questions, please don't hesitate to PM me.