Since November 1st, 2019, cars with other city vehicle registration plate have to apply for “Entering Beijing Permission” to enter Beijing, and each vehicle can apply for a maximum of 12 “Entering Beijing Permit” per year. The maximum validity period for each entry into the Beijing Pass is 7 days.

This means that vehicles in other cities use up to 84 days a year in Beijing, which is only 23% of the year.

To alleviate traffic congestion, Beijing has adopted the lottery to restrict drivers from purchasing vehicles since 2011. Vehicles in other cities need to apply for “Entering Beijing Permission ” while driving in Beijing.

In the past, consumers who did not successfully qualify for a Beijing vehicle registration plate car often chose to purchase a vehicle in another city and then proceeded to “Entering Beijing Permission.” But now, this way is banned.

According to the report(in Chinese) of the People’s Daily, there were 5.968 million vehicles holding local plates in Beijing in 2018, and the number of cars with “Entering Beijing Permission” is up to 700,000 and this number continues to rise.

In the past, other city owners can easily apply for the electronic version of “Entering Beijing Permission” in a mobile app. After successful processing, Traffic cameras will automatically ignore these vehicles. This almost makes the traffic congestion control measures fail.

In the “Beijing Notice on Traffic Management Measures for Some Passenger Cars”, which came into effect in November this year, there are four significant changes:

  1. The ban on vehicles in other cities has expanded to the sixth ring road in Beijing.
  2. The “Entering Beijing Permission” must be printed and posted in a prominent position on the vehicle.
  3. Each other city vehicle can only apply for “Entry Permission ” 12 times in one year, and each “Entering Beijing Permission” is valid for 7 days.
  4. Vehicles that enter and park in the parking lot during the validity period of the “Entering Beijing License” are also considered to be traffic violations after the “Entering Beijing License” expires.

These new rules are called “the strictest vehicle restriction policy in history”, and the head of the Beijing traffic management department said that these adjustments do not affect those who really need to drive into Beijing temporarily, mainly used to sanction those who tries to drive vehicles without local plates in Beijing.