GUANGZHOU - As he does his rounds, the only "watchdog" Ou Shaokun needs is his simple cell phone.

"Which government department do you work for?" asks Ou as he taps on the driver's window of a car parked on the sidewalk.

"Did you drive a government car here for your own business?"

When the driver refused to answer Ou's questions, he took out his cell phone and started taking photos of the license plate and the man behind the wheel.

With showy white pants and a loud voice, the 60-year-old quickly drew a group of onlookers around the car that was parked on the sidewalk in front of a bustling temple fair in the Guangdong capital.

Many of them echoed Ou's questions. Under pressure, the driver finally admitted that he was a civil servant but explained that he drove the car for work, showing Ou his work permit.

"Even if you're not using the car for personal business, you broke the rule that cars can't park on sidewalks. Please move your car. Civil servants aren't privileged to break this rule!" said Ou relentlessly.

The civil servant finally drove away and the spectators congratulated Ou, some praising his boldness and others even wanting pictures with him.

Among residents in Guangzhou, he is better known as Uncle Ou, and is famous for being a persistent and outspoken watchdog of government.

The laid-off market attendant hit the spotlight when he reported to the media last April that he had caught a policeman using a patrol car to pick up his daughter from school.

To urge the police to publish the results of the investigation and what punishment the policeman received, Ou handed police a pear which has similar pronunciation in Chinese to the word "pressure".

Ou Shaokun, better known as Uncle Ou, is famous for being a persistent and outspoken watchdog on the misuse of government vehicles by civil servants in Guangzhou. [Sun Junbin / for China Daily]