What's with the EU Plates?

sox: Well, it’s their loss. Actually, most people don’t even know Slovakia is a country in English speaking countries (and they keep talking about Czechoslovakia). Slovakia is a very under-rated country, though it’s probably a lot more overrun with middle-aged Austrian tourists and drunken British stag parties now, but I suspect the rest of the country outside Bratislava is still largely a nicely kept secret. I spent a few months there a few years back (before and as it joined the EU). Great national parks and hiking opportunities (of course, the High Tatras, but also Vratna Dolina, Demanova Dolina and especially Slovensky Raj – fantastic, and largely had them to myself), nice people and super beautiful women (some of the hottest in the world I think). If I didn’t have a great Taiwanese girlfriend already, I’d definitely be heading back to that part of the world to live and love.

you are totally right about Slovakia not being recognized not only by Taiwanese. It’s getting better tho. Not that Slovakia is becoming somewhat of what they called “Asian tigers” here, people are slowly getting more aware of it.

You surprised by all the detailed knowledge of my country. I actually come from a place right on the border of Slovensky raj (Slovak paradise). If I had a Slovak plate I would send you one to use for your scooter here, buahaha. I only have stickers with the Slovak coat of arms (it’s in the flag), one of them on the back of my bike helmet, so if you see a dude riding around Taichung with one it must be me!

Which city are you in?

I’m in Taoyuan. What would a Slovak be doing in Taiwan of all places?

There first time I was in Slovakia (for a month), I travelled around a fair part of the country. I came in from Poland at Zilina, so I went to Trencin and all those places around there as well, then the Spis region, then I got as far east as Kosice and Bardejov. I mainly did hiking though. The second time I was there (about three months I think), I stayed in Bratislava and only went out further east a few times. I also stayed in Hungary for several months, during which time I went to Slovakia several times for a day or two at a time.

I started learning some Slovak there, but I’ve forgotten a lot of it now. Bohuzial, ja hovorim po slovensky trochu len. (I hope I remembered how to write that correctly. Accents are missing, of course.) I know it’s meant to be a really hard language to learn, but I didn’t find it too hard, even though I was studying by myself from a book/CDs (Haha! I can still remember the first thing I learnt: Ja mam kufor. Auto caka vonku.), not officially or anything. I guess because I’d already travelled through a few Slavic countries and knew some Russian that really helped. At least, unlike Chinese, it’s Indo-European and you use a Roman alphabet!

Other than J-plates I have seen few K-plates (Korea).

Interesting facts, almost all of these fake plates have the temp numbers on the right, and most often than not, they have bunch of numbers 8.
Also all of those plates are blank in the middle so there is actually no registration number on any of them.

However, this is not found only in Taiwan, this is somewhat widespread in the US, particularly with the European car clubs guys. It started with the people who had “European delivery” on their cars, and when the vehicles finally showed up in the US, the owners only placed the US plates over the Euro ones, so everybody knew they had their car picked up in Europe. After that bunch of other people bought fake plates and placed them under the real ones. This is big business in the US, especially with the kids. Most of these plates are now vanity style with messages written.

This is really not that much different than having a D or GB or F or whatever sticker on the back of their cars. I always think it may be an expat, but it almost always turns out to be a local. Maybe they visited or studied in one of those countries. On my car I am sporting an SRB sticker for obvious reasons.

theserbian: It kind of reminds me of these two links at stuffwhitepeoplelike.com:

stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05 … -stickers/

“The only other acceptable sticker option for white people is the white oval country tag sticker used commonly in Europe to help identify cars that cross international borders. Though they actually serve a function in Europe, white people use the stickers to show people where they like to take vacations. If you know a white person with one of these stickers, it’s always a good idea to ask them about where they got the sticker. Your question will justify the presence of the sticker and make the white person feel great.”

stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02 … dy-abroad/

“It is also important that you understand the study abroad ranking system. Europe/Australia form the base level, then Asia, then South America, and finally the trump card of studying abroad in Tibet. Then there is the conversation killer of studying abroad in Africa. If you studied in Africa, it is usually a good idea to keep it quiet, it will remind white people that they were too scared to go and they will feel bad. Use this only in emergencies.”

My friend has a S on her Honda as she is very proud to have taken her masters degree in Sweden. I can’t blame her for that. As for the pimped out Proton, that s***t made my day!

I do not think that those betel nut chewing redneck pimps driving those customized slicks have ever been abroad, not to mention studied in the countries of which they bear the plates of. I do not want to judge them according to what they look like, but I have somewhat developed a sense of recognizing people here a little. Some people here are so modest you would be ready to throw them a handful of coins to put on some new clothes and they own 3 apartments downtown. But I can recognize a pretentious wannabe straight away.

Oh, how caring! I’m from Germany, been living here for 5 yrs. I love it! I’ve had enough of German perfectionism and rigid rules. Long live Taiwanese flexibility! Want a workman in Germany? He’ll tell you, he will come round one or two weeks later. In Taiwan? He’ll come round the same day or the next day at the latest. He may not be as perfect as a German one, but German workmen aren’t as they used to be. And they’re much more expensive! Or you want to get rid of old furniture or stuff like that? In Germany they’ll give you a date 3 weeks later. In Taipei, they tell you to put it out the same evening, and the next morning it’s gone. And of course, shopping and eating out: no silly regulations limit the fun in Taiwan.
So, enjoy as long as you’re here and you don’t have to go back e.g. to - Germany.

Just before I left Beijing I started to see the same. It is so silly. So it makes me wonder if Europeans and North Americans will start to put Taiwan and China plates on cars.

I saw a VW Golf yesterday with a ‘J’ on it’s “E.U” plate. Which country is ‘J’?

Yes, yes! I would like to have a Taipei License Plate for my Car :blush: . But I don´t know were to get one legal… :bow:

Saw a Kymco Quannon 150 today out at LongTan that had the European plate under his real plate. So the bikes are into it too now… COOL!!!
:happybiker:

Someone needs to edit the Wikipedia page on E.U. registration plates I’m thinking. And I’ve tried for the life of me to find out what ‘J’ is and it only comes up as Japan every time. Jersey isn’t ‘J’ is it? Why is it I’ve seen three ‘J’ E.U. plates now, and two have been on European model Fords? The other was a Japanese car. I can’t work this one out. Next time I’m just going to have to stop and ask someone.

GBJ = Jersey An Island in the northsee canal… But juist “J” ? Never heard that.

FYI: These long EU/J plates that look foreign and can be attached behind the Taiwanese plate are available at Carrefoure in the automotive section for about NT$400.

How sad is that!?

Oo! Oo! I saw a brilliant one today. An E.U. ‘T’ plate. Any guesses to what is stood for? Well the flag on the right hand side of the plate was…Taiwan’s. LOL!

Taiwan is now unofficially an E.U. member state! :laughing: :laughing:

I couldn’t stop laughing!

Given the state of the Union, that could only help!
:bow:

Saw a minuture EU plate today on a scooter. It had a “D” on it and was made in a Portrait style, not the usual Landscape style and was placed on the scooter body by the plate, not under. It was actually too small to be seen if it was placed under the TW plate. Must have been one of those Carrefour specials…

Does anybody knowe were I can buy one legal? (for my car in europe?)

As far I know, most European countries require your car to show the correct registration number and country of registration.

Unlike Taiwan obviously.