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Car-wanting residents are resorting to renting license plates after becoming weary of trying to win a plate through the capital city's lottery system.

Some car sales agents are selling cars that already come with license plates. Shoppers can buy them after agreeing to pay fees for the use of the plates.

For plates on cars priced below 250,000 yuan ($39,400), they must pay 4,000 yuan a year. For those on more expensive vehicles, the cost is 8,000 yuan a year.

After a customer makes a purchase, many dealers will give a contract showing that they own the car. The dealers are still the ones who obtained the plates and remain the official owners.

"Buyers are virtually buying the right to use the car," said Shen Xin, a customer manager at a Volkswagen outlet in Beijing. "But the contract says the car belongs to the consumer and that he can always transfer it to his account once he gets a plate license."

By Monday afternoon, a group-buying website, gaopeng.com, stated that more than 106 customers had used its services to rent license plates.

The business of plate rental boomed in January, when Beijing began trying to alleviate traffic congestion by restricting how many vehicles could be bought in the city. Residents have only been able to obtain license plates by taking part in a lottery.

By September, more than 742,000 people entered. The odds of winning are now 1 in 34.

In Beijing, most of the stores renting license plates belong to Lentuo Group, a car sales and maintenance company. Employees at the company said one of its branches had obtained a large number of license plates just before the lottery system went into effect in January.

Customers who buy a car with a license plate can sign a contract with a dealer allowing them to keep their plate numbers for between three and five years, some dealers said. If during that time they win a license in the lottery, they can receive a refund.

Chinese laws and regulations stipulate that car licenses can only be issued by traffic authorities and that transferring licenses among car owners is illegal.

"If the property does not belong to you, it is even possible for car dealers to sell the car a second time," said Qian Jun, a lawyer at the Beijing Yingke Law Firm.

"I don't think it is appropriate or legal that these stores are making profits from public resources. It is unfair to other brokers and to consumers."

Questions

1. Why are people “renting” license plates?

2. When did this practice begin?

3. Is renting license plates legal?

Answers

1. Residents are weary of the lotto process for licenses. The odds of winning are low.

2. It took off in January when the traffic-alleviation measures began.

3. According to traffic authorities, no.

（中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 Helen 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

?Christine Mallari is an intern at China Daily. She was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in a nearby suburb before moving for college. After recently graduating from the University of Iowa with a degree in English, Journalism and Mass Communications, she moved to Beijing to work with China Daily. Though she has been working in journalism since high school, this is her first time doing so abroad.