Hot debate and speculation spread among citizens of four major Chinese cities when the city's powers that be announced they were shutting down a personalized license plate pilot project after only 10 days.

Due to "technical problems," the new system, which allows automobile owners to register personal number (and letter) plates for their vehicles, was suspended, said a notice issued by the Beijing Traffic Administration Bureau on Wednesday. The notice did not mention a date of resumption for the pilot project, which was supposed to last four months.

Similar notices were posted by traffic administration bureaux in Tianjin, Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province and Shenzhen in South China's Guangzhou Province.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, the cities will resume using the 1992 method of issuing license numbers by random computer generation.

Although the traffic authorities did not give a clear explanation as to why the trial came to a sudden halt, some suspect that the creative use of license numbers and the chaos it could cause might be part of the reason.

In response to this, a ministry official told China Daily yesterday that the public and the media should keep calm instead of making a fuss; the traffic administration departments will give a further explanation soon.

Beginning August 12, vehicle owners in the four cities got a good opportunity to show their creativity with personalized license plates.

In Beijing, more than 10,000 car owners chose their own combinations of letters and numbers over the past 10 days, reported the Beijing Evening News.

Since car owners were free to choose any sequence or combination of letters and numbers (except CHN), many people were reported choosing plates like BTV-001, SEX-001, WTO-001 and so on.

The effects of the selection of such plates under the new system on traffic administration authorities and on vehicle owners are uncertain.

According to a recent Internet survey, to which 6,391 people responded, 55 percent welcomed the license-plate reform, regarding it an exciting way for vehicle-owners to show their personalities; 25 percent thought it meaningless and another 20 percent said they are hoping for further reforms regarding number plates.

On the plus side, the new reform may have helped spur auto sales. A total of 1,300 cars were sold last week, 200 more than the usual figure, a salesman with the Asian Games Village Automobile Exchange said via telephone. The market is the largest one in Beijing. Inquired if the new move could affect the auto sales, the salesman said he believed that some fluctuations may appear, but the market will prosper in the long run.

The public also showed an understanding of concerns about personalized plates.

"I believe the owner of a vehicle who registered SEX-001 would regret his choice sooner or later," wrote a person on the Web.

Others said the public should not be nervous about chaos because only a few people would choose "weird" or "bad" number plates and would not influence the new system as whole.

(China Daily August 23, 2002)