Driving cost

A car owner in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, bought a vehicle license plate for 1.31 million yuan ($197,543) Tuesday.

The Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening News reported Wednesday that the plate, 粵(short name for Guangdong Province) A8888Q was sold at an auction that the price broke a previous bid of 747,000 yuan ($112,302) for the plate number 粵A000F1 in October, 2007. Eight is considered as an auspicious number in China.

The report said about 100 plates were auctioned Tuesday.

The numbers 粵A6666Q and 粵 A3333P were auctioned for 751,000 yuan ($112,903) and 680,000 yuan ($102,229) respectively. The minimum bidding price for each plate is 10,000 yuan ($1,503)