How are the letters in license plate numbers arranged?
2 Answers
License plate letter arrangement method: The second letter in the license plate number represents the letter code for each prefecture-level city, region, or autonomous prefecture. These are typically assigned by the provincial vehicle management office based on the administrative divisions within the province. The letter "A" is usually reserved for the provincial capital, regional capital, or central urban area of a municipality directly under the central government. Subsequent letters are assigned without specific ranking. A license plate consists of the province's abbreviation, the letter code for the prefecture-level city, and a 5-digit number. Initially, the 5-digit numbers followed a sequential pattern, starting from 00001 and going up to 99999. As car ownership in China grew, the numbers eventually reached 100000, which could no longer be accommodated within 5 digits. To solve this, letters from A to Z were introduced to replace digits.
Back when I was getting my driver's license, I was also curious about license plate letters and asked many veteran drivers and DMV staff. The letters on license plates are assigned in registration order, starting from A all the way to Z. New vehicles are assigned the next available letter sequence upon registration, for example A12345 followed by B12345 in sequential order. Each province has fixed codes, like JingA for Beijing vehicles, with letter sequencing designed to avoid duplication and give each car a unique identifier. When driving, I enjoy guessing vehicles' origins and age by their plate letters - for instance, YueB plates are commonly seen on Shenzhen vehicles. Vehicle owners should keep their plates clean and legible to avoid fines caused by blurred or rusted letters.
