What is the beginning of Jiangning license plate numbers?
3 Answers
Jiangning license plate numbers begin with Su A. Motor vehicle license plate numbers consist of the motor vehicle registration authority code and the license plate number. The motor vehicle registration authority code consists of two characters, a Chinese character and an English letter. Additional relevant information is as follows: 1. The first character of the license plate is a Chinese character: it represents the provincial-level administrative region where the vehicle is registered, which is the abbreviation of the (province, municipality directly under the central government, or autonomous region). 2. The second character of the license plate is an English letter: it represents the prefecture-level administrative region where the vehicle is registered, which is the letter code for the (prefecture-level city, region, autonomous prefecture, or league). Generally, the ranking is determined by the provincial vehicle management office based on the status of each prefecture-level administrative region: (the letter "A" is the code for the capital, provincial capital, or central urban area of a municipality directly under the central government, and the subsequent letters are not ranked in any particular order).
I remember that Jiangning, as a district of Nanjing, used to have license plates starting with Su A. The other day, I accompanied a friend to the vehicle management office to get his license plate. He bought a new energy vehicle, and the staff at the window clearly stated that Jiangning car owners uniformly use Nanjing license plates, with no independent number segments. There were rumors in the past that Jiangning used a special letter at the beginning, but in reality, all districts in Nanjing, including Liuhe and Pukou, now share the Su A prefix. The only difference lies in the combination of the following five letters and numbers. If you see a Jiangning license plate with the second letter unusually far back, it might be an old plate issued earlier. However, after the unified reform in 2018, all newly registered vehicles have standard Su A prefixes. The pattern of license plate prefixes actually reflects urban administrative planning. For example, areas around Nanjing like Jurong use Su L, which is different from Jiangning.
Last week, while handling business at Jiangning University Town, I specifically observed the license plates in the parking lot—all uniformly starting with Su A. As a long-time Nanjing resident, I clearly remember that after Jiangning transitioned from a county to a district in the early 2000s, its license plates were unified with the main urban area. Although some mistakenly believe suburban areas might have special number segments, Jiangsu Province explicitly stipulates that districts under prefecture-level cities share the same initial letter for license plates. When helping my company register a new car this month, the DMV officer joked that Jiangning car owners always prefer numbers with 8, but the Su A prefix is unavoidable. To check the specific registration area, it’s more reliable to look at the sequence of the second letter on the plate—for example, Su AA to Su AZ all fall under Nanjing’s jurisdiction.
