Vehicle registration plates of the People's Republic of China

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Blue PRC licence plates of the 1992 standard (August 2004 image). The last digit has been cropped. This is an example of a vehicle registered to a Chinese citizen or entity.
Blue PRC licence plates of the 1992 standard (August 2004 image). The last digit has been cropped. This is an example of a vehicle registered to a Chinese citizen or entity.
Black PRC licence plates of the 1992 standard (August 2004 image). The last digit has been cropped. This is an example of a vehicle registered to a foreign person or entity.
Black PRC licence plates of the 1992 standard (August 2004 image). The last digit has been cropped. This is an example of a vehicle registered to a foreign person or entity.

The People's Republic of China issues vehicles licence plates at its Vehicle Management Offices, under the administration of the Ministry of Public Security.

Hong Kong and Macau have their own administrations on licence plates. Vehicles from Hong Kong and Macau are required to apply for licence plates, usually from Guangdong province, to travel on roads in mainland China.

Contents

[edit] Types

[edit] Common types

The current plates are of the 1992 standard, which consist of the one-character provincial abbreviation, a letter of the alphabet, and five number or letters of the alphabet (Ex. 沪A 12345; 京C A1234; 苏A 1P234; 浙B AB987). Previously, all licence plates had used the five-number designation. As the number of motor vehicles grew, however, the number had to exceed what was the maximum previously allowable -- 90,000 or 100,000 vehicles. Therefore there had become a need to insert Latin letters into the licence plate to increase the number of possible combinations. This was first done in the bigger cities with only one prefix. Nanjing, for example, began the change with only the first number, which increased the number of possible combinations to 340,000 (with the exceptions of O & I, which cannot be printed without confusion with the numbers 0 & 1). Further changes allowed the first two places, or the second place alone on the plate to be letters, allowing 792,000 more combinations mathematically. More recently, cities have taken to having the third letter alone being a Latin letter, the rest numbers. The numbers are produced at random, and are computer-generated at the issuing office. Numbers with a sequence of 6's, 8's, or 9's are usually considered to be lucky, therefore special sequences like "88888" or "86888" can be purchased. (A previous licence plate system, with a green background and the full name of the province in Chinese characters, actually had a sequential numbering order, and the numbering system was eventually beset with corruption.)

Yellow plates are issue for large vehicles of Chinese nationality, such as trucks and buses. These licence plates usually has the Designate Area and Letter on top of the numbers, as opposed to being beside it. (In addition, they may have the licence number sprayed in large letters on the outside of the truck, or in more prominent places.) Blue plates, the most common sort, are issued for vehicles of Chinese nationality which are small or compact in size. Black plates are issued for vehicles belonging to foreigners, and persons from Hong Kong and Macau. (Black licence plates are handed to vehicles of any size, as long as they are of foreign nationality.)

[edit] Military and Police

Military and Police plates also exist, but, of course, are inaccessible to common citizens. These plates are in a white background, with red and black text. The civil police plates have a designated format of X·LLNNN·警 (X being the geographical abbreviation, N being numbers, and L being possible numbers or letters, 警 meaning police and coloured red). These plates are issued to traffic police, some patrol vehicles, and court and procuratorate vehicles. Armed Police (武警) uses the pinyin abbreviation WJ and use the format WJNN-NNNNN. Military vehicles previously had plates using a code of heavenly stems in red. After a 2004 reorganization, however, military vehicles now use a more organized of prefixes. The designation of "军" ("Military") indicates a miscellaneous military vehicle, "海" being vehicles of the Navy, "空" being vehicles of the Air Force. Vehicles of the various military regions have their own prefixes, being 北 (Bei; Beijing Military Region), 沈 (Shen; Shenyang Military Region), 兰 (Lan; Lanzhou Military Region), 成 (Cheng; Chengdu Military Region), 济 (Ji; Jinan Military Region), 南 (Nan; Nanjing Military Region), and 广 (Guang; Guangzhou Military Region). These plates use the format XL·NNNNN (X being the prefix, L being a letter).

[edit] Motorcycles

Motorcycle licence plates are nearly the same as that for ordinary vehicles, but are less in length and look more like an elongated square than a banner-like rectangle. There are two lines of text (province code and letter on the top, numbers on the bottom).

For qinqi or low-powered motorbikes, yellow licence plates are issued throughout.

[edit] Embassy and Consulate

Embassy and consulate vehicles have their own licence plate with a red character and six more white numbers. Embassy plates have a black background (following the foreigner plate standard, previously mentioned). Embassies use 使 (shǐ) (for 使馆) and are used only in Beijing. Consulates use 领 (lǐng) (for 领事馆) and are used for representations outside of Beijing. The character is red instead of white. The six numbers on Embassy plates are formatted such that the first three digits represent what foreign entity/organization the vehicle is registered to (alphabetic order). The last three digits is generally a sequence, where 001 is (generally) the Ambassador's car. Example: 使 224 001 - an American Embassy-registered vehicle, in this case, the Ambassador's limo.

[edit] Embassy Plate Prefixes in Beijing

[edit] Other Types

Vehicles for use in automobile tests, vehicles for use in driving schools (examination and test-driving), and vehicles at airports all have their own separate licence plates.

For automobile tests, licence plates consist of black characters on a yellow background with the suffix shi (short in Chinese for ce shi or test). For driving schools, different plates apply for test-drive vehicles (jiaolian che) and examination vehicles (kaoshi che).

Airports have licence plates with white characters on a green background with the designation min hang (Civilian Air Transportation). This shade of green is slightly lighter than the variant used on normal licence plates prior to 1992.

[edit] Cross Border with Hong Kong and Macau

Licence plates with a black background and the character 港 or 澳 in place of the last number are used for Hong Kong and Macau vehicles, respectively, when they engage in cross-border traffic to and from Mainland China. These plates often exist side by side with a local HK or Macau licence plate on the same car.

[edit] Interim Licence Plates

Interim licence plates are a piece of paper to be affixed to the front of the vehicle's window. They appear to have been withdrawn as of recently.

[edit] The Short-Lived 2002 Licence Plate Standard

For a short while in the summer of 2002, a new 2002 Licence Plate Standard was instituted in several cities, including Beijing. They enabled number/alphabetical customisation. (The possible combinations were NNN-NNN, NNN-LLL and LLL-NNN, where N would be a number and L a letter. However, although the usage of "CHN", to designate China, was not permitted in the licence plates, that restriction, oddly enough, did not apply to the letters "PRC".) The VIN was also added to the new licence plates, and the plates were white, with a gradual blue tint at the bottom end of the plates. Black letters were used on the plate.

In late August 2002 new 2002 standard plates had their issuance temporarily interrupted, officially for technical reasons, but actually because some lewd, provocative and controversial number/alphabetical combinations were used. One of the biggest controversies was when a vehicle with licence plate number USA-911 was spotted in Beijing, causing an uproar. Equal uproars were created with such plates as PRC-001, and trademark violations were rife; the plate number IBM-001 was seen. The WTO acronym was also spotted in the licence plates. In a society that is still rather conservative in this topic, the licence plate SEX-001 was the source of yet another controversy. The number 250, an insult in spoken Chinese, was also spotted in some plates.

Possibly due to the controversies as described above, as of summer 2003, the new plates are no longer being issued. Old licence plates of the 2002 standard are not being recalled.

[edit] New 2007 Standard

The Ministry of Public Security has announced on October 30, 2007, that the old 1992 vehicle license plate system will be overhauled on November 1, 2007.

Major Points of interest:

  • The current black license plates assigned to foreign-owned vehicles will be phased out. New vehicles will be issued "normal" blue license plates.
  • Two roman letters (not including O,or I, which could be confused with numerals) may be included among the last five places of the plate number.

Owners of vehicles with the older (1992) standard will not be forced to swap to the new standard,however when new plates are required,only the blue plates will be issued. It is also clear that the embassy license plates will not be affected.

It is believed this is a China-wide standard.

Official Beijing Traffic Bureau announcement (Chinese)

[edit] List of prefixes

The following lists all licence plate prefixes in use in the People's Republic of China, divided into four sections: municipalities, provinces, autonomous regions and others.

This list might not be up to date, complete or accurate. Please amend as you see fit.

[edit] Municipalities

[edit] Beijing

Initial character of licence plates used in Beijing is: 京 (Pinyin: Jīng)

  • 京A, 京C, 京E, 京F, 京H, 京J, 京K, 京L — Urban area
  • 京B — Taxis
  • 京G — Suburbs
  • 京O — Beijing Government Private Vehicles

[edit] Chongqing

Initial character of licence plates used in Chongqing is: 渝 (Yú)

[edit] Shanghai

Initial character of licence plates used in Shanghai is: 沪 (Hù)

  • 沪A, 沪B, 沪D, 沪E, 沪F — Urban area
  • 沪C — Suburbs
  • 沪O — Police vehicles.

[edit] Tianjin

Initial character of licence plates used in Tianjin is: 津 (Jīn)

  • 津A, 津B, 津C, 津F — Urban area
  • 津E — Taxis

[edit] Provinces

[edit] Anhui

Initial character of licence plates used in Anhui is: 皖 (Wǎn)

[edit] Fujian

Initial character of licence plates used in Fujian is: 闽 (Mǐn)

[edit] Gansu

Initial character of licence plates used in Gansu is: 甘 (Gān)

[edit] Guangdong

Initial character of licence plates used in Guangdong is: 粤 (Yuè)

[edit] Guizhou

Initial character of licence plates used in Guizhou is: 贵 (Guì)

[edit] Hainan

Initial character of licence plates used in Hainan is: 琼 (Qióng)

[edit] Hebei

Initial character of licence plates used in Hebei is: 冀 (Jì)

[edit] Heilongjiang

Initial character of licence plates used in Heilongjiang is: 黑 (Hēi)

[edit] Henan

Initial character of licence plates used in Henan is: 豫 (Yù)

[edit] Hubei

Initial character of licence plates used in Hubei is: 鄂 (È)

[edit] Hunan

Initial character of licence plates used in Hunan is: 湘 (Xiāng)

[edit] Jiangsu

Initial character of licence plates used in Jiangsu is: 苏 (Sū)

[edit] Jiangxi

Initial character of licence plates used in Jiangxi is: 赣 (Gàn)

[edit] Jilin

Initial character of licence plates used in Jilin is: 吉 (Jí)

[edit] Liaoning

Initial character of licence plates used in Liaoning is: 辽 (Liáo)

[edit] Qinghai

Initial character of licence plates used in Qinghai is: 青 (Qīng)

[edit] Shaanxi

Initial character of licence plates used in Shaanxi is: 陕 (Shǎn)

[edit] Shandong

Initial character of licence plates used in Shandong is: 鲁 (Lǔ)

[edit] Shanxi

Initial character of licence plates used in Shanxi is: 晋 (Jìn)

[edit] Sichuan

Initial character of licence plates used in Sichuan is: 川 (Chuān)

[edit] Yunnan

Initial character of licence plates used in Yunnan is: 云 (Yún)

[edit] Zhejiang

Initial character of licence plates used in Zhejiang is: 浙 (Zhè)

[edit] Autonomous regions

[edit] Guangxi

Initial character of licence plates used in Guangxi is: 桂 (Guì)

[edit] Inner Mongolia

Initial character of licence plates used in Inner Mongolia is: 蒙 (Měng)

[edit] Ningxia

Initial character of licence plates used in Ningxia is: 宁 (Níng)

[edit] Tibet

Initial character of licence plates used in Tibet is: 藏 (Zàng)

[edit] Xinjiang

Initial character of licence plates used in Xinjiang is: 新 (Xīn)

[edit] Others

  • In general, an initial character followed by "O" denotes a police vehicle, e.g. 京O.
  • A plate prefixed by a red "WJ" (abbreviation for Wujing or armed police) denotes a vehicle belonging to the People's Armed Police.
  • In theory, the initial character for cars in Taiwan would be 台(tái), though such cars do not exist as no part of Taiwan is under the control of the PRC.

[edit] See also

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Vehicle registration plates of Asia

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* People's Republic of China (Hong Kong · Macau) · Republic of China (Taiwan)
1 Transcontinental country.  2 Only recognised by Turkey.  3 Not fully independent.
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