Wired China - True Amazement

Wired China - True Amazement - Part 1: Beijing Traffic Bureau Don’t anyone ever complain how “backwards” or “technology inept” China is. While in some areas, it may seem it is, in others, it isn’t - more so than other developed countries, like the U.S.. So, you know I was lucky enough to get a parking ticket a few weeks ago. The Beijing Traffic Bureau has a website. Not surprising it is all in Chinese. Here is the URL: http://www.bjjtgl.gov.cn/index.asp. Go to the second grey box on the left, the one with the single drop down selection box, and a text box to the right of it. The selection box has only one option. For those of you with Chinese support in your browsers, you will see the character for Jing - capital. All beijing license plates have a Jing on it, signifying the vehicle is registered in Beijing. In the text box to the right, type in my license plate number: A00511. Click the submit button. You will see a popup window with 5 options. Click the option with the id 100118078, This is for my bike. You will see the characters (if you can see characters) in the other columns: (Note, I did these translations using software and my brain, so it isn’t perfect) 1. ???????, for waiji motuoche haopai – Foreign National Motorbike License Plate 2. ?, for hei – black (the bike is black) If you click on the link, you will see a bit of information about my ticket! Col 1: 2004-03-14 13:43 – Date of ticket Col 2: ?? ??????? – Chaoyang district (district of the city the resturant was in), uh, then something about act occuring on the side of the road Col 3: ??????????? – Disobeyed parking regulation In the next row: ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????? ???????5? This is basically telling me to go to the address (the second line) to either complain or pay the fine (i think). Impressive huh? (no, not my chinese, which sucks, remember, I used software for this). I am surprised they have this information available on the web.