China license plates

Try a plate

Type any China registration — valid plates render below, on their real designs.

Try the API

Everything on this page — formats, validity, colours, the renders themselves — is one request away.

GET /v1/plates/cn/match?plate=…

GET /v1/plates/cn/match?plate=%E4%BA%ACA%C2%B788562

{ "plate": "京A·88562",
  "valid": true, "exact": true,
  "matches": [{ "id": "cn-small-car-1992",
    "render_url": "…svg?serial=%E4%BA%ACA%C2%B788562" }] }

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Worth knowing

The letters that can't be a serial — except as the office

No Chinese serial uses I or O — the standard excludes them by name. But the office code one character earlier uses the full alphabet, including both: every province's own traffic-police office is the letter O, the famous "O 牌". Same plate, two alphabets, one character apart.

GA 36-2007 §5.8-5.9

A plate that says its name before its place

Every Chinese registration leads with its province character — except one. The emergency-rescue motorcycle plate opens with the word 应急 ("emergency") itself, then the province. It is the one mark where "first character = province" is simply wrong.

国办发〔2018〕114号

Painted on the truck, 2.5 times life size

Heavy goods vehicles carry their own registration painted on the body at 2.5× the plate's size — a Guangdong box truck's rear doors say 粤SEX466 in letters far taller than the metal plate below them.

GA 36-2007 §7.3

standard plates 5

the default series issued to private road vehicles

Small car

The ordinary blue plate on most of China's cars since the 92-pattern began — province character, office letter, five characters, and a raised dot the standard says may be "embossed and coloured the same way" as the rest.

Two characters do all the decoding: the Han character is the province — 京 Beijing, 沪 Shanghai, 粤 Guangdong — and the letter is the issuing office within it, 粤A Guangzhou, 粤B Shenzhen. In the four municipalities the letter is only a batch: 京B is not a district.

京: 北京市 — Beijing
沪: 上海市 — Shanghai
粤: 广东省 — Guangdong Province
O: 省、自治区公安厅车辆管理所 — the provincial public-security department's own vehicle office — the "O plate"

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: car, van

Large car

Same two-character decode as the blue plate — province character, then issuing-office letter. The yellow ground adds the only extra fact, and it is size class, not commercial use: a privately owned medium bus is yellow, and so is a trolleybus.

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: truck, bus

Driving school car

Province character and office letter as usual, with 学 — "learn" — closing the serial: a driving-instruction car. One glyph, the whole story.

学: 教练车 — driving-instruction (learner) vehicle — the character means "to learn"

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: car, bus

HK/Macau cross-border

Every element is fixed meaning: 粤 is Guangdong, Z is the office code the provincial vehicle office reserves for cross-boundary traffic, and the closing character names the side — 港 for a Hong Kong vehicle, 澳 for Macau. The most identifiable Chinese plate of all.

粤: 广东省 — Guangdong Province
Z: 港澳入出境车 — Hong Kong / Macau cross-boundary office code
港: 香港 — Hong Kong vehicle
澳: 澳门 — Macau vehicle

In the sample, 9 for any digit; the other characters are fixed.

~2007 → today documented from 2007 — the format is likely older issued for: car, van, truck, bus

Large car 440×220 mm

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: truck, bus

electric plates 2

EV-distinct plates or suffixes (German E, CN green plates)

New energy small

Announced for five pilot cities in 2016 and nationwide within two years: six characters instead of five, a white-to-green gradient ground, and a small mark shaped like a plug and the letter E at once where the dot would otherwise sit.

Six serial positions instead of five, on graded green — and one letter with meaning: D is 纯电动, battery electric; F is 非纯电动, everything else that plugs in or runs on fuel cells. Where in the six positions that letter sits, no public document actually says.

D: 纯电动 — battery electric
F: 非纯电动 — non-pure-electric — plug-in hybrid, fuel cell and the rest

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

2016 → today issued for: car, van

New energy large

Same powertrain letter as the small NEV plate — D battery electric, F plug-in hybrid or fuel cell — on the yellow-green split ground of large vehicles. The reported positions (letter first on small plates, last on large) have no primary source; treat them as folklore.

D: 纯电动 — battery electric
F: 非纯电动 — non-pure-electric — plug-in hybrid, fuel cell and the rest

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

2016 → today issued for: truck, bus

motorcycle plates 4

reduced-size series for motorcycles where format/design differs

Motorcycle

Province character, then the letter of the issuing office — the same decode as the cars, without the separator dot.

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: motorcycle

Driving school motorcycle

Same decode as the school car: province, office letter, and the closing 学 — "learn" — for a driving-instruction motorcycle.

学: 教练车 — driving-instruction (learner) vehicle

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: motorcycle

Motorcycle 220×140 mm

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: motorcycle

Driving school motorcycle 220×140 mm

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: motorcycle

moped plates 2

insurance/registration plates for mopeds (NL/DE small plates)

Moped

The standard two-character decode on the lightest class: province character, then the issuing-office letter, in the small-car colourway.

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: moped

Moped 220×140 mm

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: moped

agricultural plates 1

farm vehicles/equipment where separately serialized

Low-speed

The squarest Chinese plate still opens the standard way: the province character, then the letter of the issuing office that registered the three-wheeler or work machine. The class lives in the plate shape, not the characters.

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: truck, machine

trailer plates 1

trailers and semi-trailers where separately serialized

Trailer

Province, office letter, serial, then 挂 — short for 挂车, trailer. One character saves you looking for a cab: if the number ends in 挂, the vehicle it belongs to is being towed.

挂: 挂车 — trailer / semi-trailer

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: trailer, semitrailer

temporary plates 3

short-validity plates (transit, awaiting registration)

Temporary travel

The domestic paper permit adds an optional final character with real meaning: 试 marks a test vehicle, 超 an over-dimension or over-mass load; ordinary temporary plates carry neither. Two ground tints split single-area from cross-area travel, as on the entry plates.

试: 试 — "to test" — test vehicle's temporary plate
超: 超 — "to exceed" — over-dimension / over-mass special vehicle

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, moped, trailer, machine

Temporary entry car

A laminated card whose decode is in the tint: one ground colour marks a foreign vehicle confined to a single area, the other one crossing between areas. The province-and-office characters record the issuer, and the permitted route is printed on the card itself.

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: car, van, truck, bus

Temporary entry motorcycle

Same decode as the temporary-entry car: the ground tint says whether the machine may leave its area; the province character and office letter say who issued the permit.

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: motorcycle

government plates 2

civil government fleets with distinct series

Emergency rescue car

Province character, a force letter — X for 消防救援, fire and rescue; S for 森林消防, forest fire — four digits, then a red 应急, "emergency". Five digits and no letter at all marks a vehicle of the Ministry of Emergency Management itself.

X: 消防救援 — fire and rescue force
S: 森林消防 — forest fire force
应急: 应急救援 — emergency rescue

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

2018 → today issued for: car, van, truck, bus

Emergency rescue motorcycle

The one Chinese registration that leads with its classification: 应急 comes first, the province character second, and the force letter closes the number. Any parser that assumes "first character = province" breaks exactly here.

应急: 应急救援 — emergency rescue
X: 消防救援 — fire and rescue force
S: 森林消防 — forest fire force

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

2018 → today issued for: motorcycle

police plates 2

police fleets where distinct from government

Police car

The red 警 — 警车, police vehicle — closes the serial, but the front of the number does not decode like a civil plate: police plates are issued by each provincial department, not by city offices, so the office letter is not the city key it usually is.

警: 警车 — police vehicle

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

2007 → today issued for: car, van, truck, bus

Police motorcycle

Same as the police car: a red 警 at the end, and an office letter that does not decode city-by-city, because police plates are issued at provincial level.

警: 警车 — police vehicle

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

2007 → today issued for: motorcycle

diplomatic plates 3

diplomatic corps (embassy) issuance, usually its own decode

Embassy car

The red 使 — 使馆, embassy — is the one certainty; uniquely for a Chinese plate, no province character appears. The popular reading of the digits as a country code plus serial has no published source, so we do not repeat it.

使: 使馆 — embassy

In the sample, 9 for any digit.

~1992 → today documented from 1992 — the format is likely older issued for: car, van

Embassy motorcycle

Digits, then a red 使 — 使馆, embassy — and, uniquely among Chinese plates, no province character at all. What the digits encode is unpublished.

使: 使馆 — embassy

In the sample, 9 for any digit.

~1992 → today documented from 1992 — the format is likely older issued for: motorcycle

Embassy motorcycle 220×140 mm

In the sample, 9 for any digit.

~1992 → today documented from 1992 — the format is likely older issued for: motorcycle

consular plates 3

consular corps where distinct from diplomatic

Consulate car

The red 领 is short for 领事馆 — consulate. Because the plate keeps the ordinary province-plus-office frame, it names its host city: 沪A…领 is a consulate in Shanghai. The single most useful sourced fact about Chinese diplomatic plates.

领: 领事馆 — consulate

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: car, van

Consulate motorcycle

Decodes like the consular car: province character and office letter name the host city, and the red 领 — 领事馆, consulate — closes the serial.

领: 领事馆 — consulate

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: motorcycle

Consulate motorcycle 220×140 mm

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

1992 → today issued for: motorcycle