More than 20,000 Guangdong residents had overlapping ID card numbers because officials manually recorded some numbers, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Thursday. 

One official with the provincial public security department said over 50 million ID numbers had been issued in Guangdong since 1985. Registration of ID numbers was done by hand at the beginning, causing duplicated or wrong numbers.

Guangdong has replaced thousands of duplicated or wrong ID numbers since the early 1990s.

The problem could disappear in the coming years with the ID cards to be changed into the form of IC card connected to a national network.

The overlapped ID number has caused some trouble. A man in Yangchun City had waited for more than three years to receive his driving license because he shared the same ID number with another man in the city, the Nanfang Daily reported last year.

According to the provincial public security department, those sharing the same ID number can get a new one for free, and local public security sectors will provide official proof of their identities after the new number is issued.

(Shenzhen Daily June 24, 2005)