Yo Dawg, I heard you like license plates

"Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever" (superchan7) 02/17/2020 at 14:13 • Filed to: Hong Kong, Macau, HONG KONG-ZHUHAI-MACAU Bridge

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The new bridge linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau has given rise to a number of cars with three registration plates.

This car, for example, is visiting Hong Kong from Macau.

By Anthony Ivanoff - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85019323

From top to bottom:

The mainland Chinese plate issued by Guangdong Province. First is the character ‘’ which is the historical name for the Cantonese people. It’s black with a ‘Z’ district identifier to denote a visitor from a Special Administrative Region. The last character ‘’ is from Macau’s Chinese name. Of China’s provinces, only Guangdong issues plates for SAR visitors. Normal Chinese plates are blue. Even if a Macau SAR driver only visits Hong Kong SAR and not mainland China, this registration is needed because the bridge is under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province and mainland Chinese law applies on the bridge.

This is the car’s home plate of Macau. All Macau plates still start with M, but they will run out of that series soon. I don’t know why Macau people tend to hang their home plates below the mainland plate. Hong Kong cars crossing the border always keep their home plates in the primary position.

This is a Hong Kong plate. It follows Hong Kong’s standard format “XX ####” but the “ZM” prefix denotes “Zhuhai & Macau” visitors and was created because of the new bridge. Regular series plates in Hong Kong will therefore skip the “ZM” prefix in the future. A small number of visitors from mainland China can also enter Hong Kong, and those get visitor plates with prefix ‘FV’ or ‘FU’.

Nom De Plume > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 02/17/2020 at 14:21

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A clear case for triangular rotating plate holders as an aftermarket custom option. Small transceiver registers when a border is crossed and displays the correct plate.

This being Oppo, we hope most will go with a manual and not automatic plate changer.

Aremmes > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 02/17/2020 at 14:22

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A small number of visitors from mainland China can also enter Hong Kong, and those get visitor plates with prefix ‘FV’ or ‘FU’.

How handy of them, tee hee.

Chariotoflove > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 02/17/2020 at 14:29

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Weird. Can they not get some reciprocal  agreements in place to handle this problem ?

not for canada - australian in disguise > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 02/17/2020 at 14:30

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Going from Macau to Guangzhou to Shenzhen to Hong Kong without taking the bridge would be a hell of a roadtrip. Going from left-hand traffic, to right-hand, and then ending in left-hand must get confusing in general. There’s nowhere else in the world you can do that but remain in the “same country”, there i s the USVI but good luck getting there from the mainland US or even Puerto Rico by car, even with a ferry.

MonkeePuzzle > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 02/17/2020 at 14:33

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this appears to be photoshopped. everyone knows a Tesla will have a lol-gas plate, not this numbers and letters nonsense

fintail > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 02/17/2020 at 14:38

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Mainland-Macau-HK, I bet that’s a handy route for moving capital :)

Spork! > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 02/17/2020 at 14:44

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My guess is that the Chinese plate matches the top and bottom holes of the license plate bracket better?

So is that Tesla RHD then? And why is it parked in a no parking zone?

Svend > not for canada - australian in disguise 02/17/2020 at 16:46

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I believe there’s some countries in South America where the drivers descending the mountainous roads drive on the outside of the road and so change from left to right, to left, to right, etc... hand side driving each turn.

I'm not sure its still the case, but there was a few roads where you had to drive on the left, so LHD car drivers could see where the edge of the road. 

not for canada - australian in disguise > Svend 02/17/2020 at 16:53

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I believe the famous “death road” in Bolivia is like that, but I wouldn’t really say cases like that are comparable. Those are rural unsealed roads that are basically logging tracks with highway levels of traffic, while the roads in southeastern China are paved highways that are designed to carry a significant amount of traffic. It’s driving on the other side because of colonial history vs. driving on the other side due to safety reasons.

Svend > not for canada - australian in disguise 02/17/2020 at 17:00

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Ye’, I take your point.

There are a few other roads in France and Italy that drive on the left. I can’t recall them off the top of my head.

There is a road outside the Savoy Hotel in London that you drive on the right. 

UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 02/17/2020 at 17:39

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Does this mean they have citizenship/are registered in all of these places? Or do they need the plate of all those countries to get in?

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Spork! 02/17/2020 at 19:29

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Yep, being a Macau car it's RHD.  And it's parked like that because Tesla, probably.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > not for canada - australian in disguise 02/17/2020 at 19:33

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The two LHD/RHD flips  happen at the p ort facilities on each end of the bridge. The idea is to have people take the bridge buses and not drive.  Anyway, car ownership in Hong Kong and Macau are less than 10%.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Nom De Plume 02/17/2020 at 19:34

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Granny shifting, not double clutching like you should.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 02/17/2020 at 19:36

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The owner is a Macau resident, and he had to get 2 permits which, in this case, manifest as actual  number plates.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Chariotoflove 02/17/2020 at 19:38

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Yeah, this is China, so the "reciprocal agreement" is to throw an official plate on your car.  If I don't like it, I'm out of luck.

Chariotoflove > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 02/17/2020 at 19:54

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Yeah, silly me.  Forget I said anything.

not for canada - australian in disguise > Svend 02/17/2020 at 21:45

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It’s also worth noting that a significant chunk of Canada, namely British Columbia and parts of the Maritimes used to drive on the left until the 1920s.

Newfoundland also drove on the right until 1947, but that was when they were still a British possession, as they didn’t become a Canadian province until 1949.

Svend > not for canada - australian in disguise 02/18/2020 at 02:26

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I was just thinking about Newfoundland still being on the left, then I read past the picture, though for some reason I thought it was mid 1950s.