When the Beijing Vehicle Administration Bureau, on the North Fifth Ring Road, opened at 8:30 am Monday, more than 300 people were waiting there, some since 18 hours earlier.

Zan Yunde was the first Beijinger to get his favorite number plate - 123-456 - for his Chinese-made car.

By noon, 1,165 automobile owners in Beijing also got their favorite plates - a bureau record, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The pilot project is also running in Tianjin, Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province and Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province from Monday to December 31, according to the Bureau of Traffic Administration under the Ministry of Public Security.

In Shenzhen, more than 7,000 people who have bought cars will register new licence plates during the pilot project period, Xinhua reported.

Under the new system, vehicle owners can get plates composed of three English letters and three Arabic numbers or six Arabic numbers in two groups.

The English letter combination of CHN, the abbreviation for China, will not be allowed, traffic administration bureaux officials said.

They would not say why.

Some wonder whether people will ask for the acronyms of famous companies such as IBM computers.

Others said people should choose plates prudently so as to avoid misunderstanding.

( China Daily August 13, 2002)