What does the Beijing license plate A8 signify?
1 Answers
In the Beijing A8 license plate, "Jing" represents Beijing; "A" is the code for the capital city of a province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the central government in China; and "8" is the first digit of the plate number. Individually, these elements don’t hold special meaning, but when combined as Jing, A, and 8, they symbolize the privileged class in Beijing. More details are as follows: 1. Format: In the 1990s, license plates issued followed the format of provincial capital + letter + five digits. Plates starting with Jing A80, Jing A81, and Jing A82 were exclusively used by official vehicles of Beijing government departments, making Jing A8 plates highly prestigious. Ordinary citizens could hardly obtain Jing A80~82 plates, but Jing A83~89 were not government-exclusive, allowing the general public to acquire them. This led to inflated prices for Jing A8 plates, with even the non-special Jing A83~89 plates fetching high prices. 2. Note: In Beijing, the prestige of Jing A8 plates is relatively moderate. As the nation’s political center, Beijing has many more valuable license plates than Jing A8. For example, plates like Jing AG6 and Jing AG0 are reserved for deputy national-level leaders. Additionally, plates starting with Jing V0 are used for military commission or senior officials’ vehicles, such as Jing V02009, which was the special vehicle used by then-President Hu Jintao during the National Day parade in 2009.
