Which region does the Shaanxi U license plate belong to?
4 Answers
Shaanxi U is the license plate for Xi'an, where 'Shaan' is the abbreviation for Shaanxi Province. The license plate codes for other cities in Shaanxi Province are as follows: Shaan B for Tongchuan City, Shaan C for Baoji City, Shaan D for Xianyang City, Shaan E for Weinan City, Shaan F for Hanzhong City, Shaan G for Ankang City, Shaan H for Shangluo City, Shaan J for Yan'an City, Shaan K for Yulin City, and Shaan V for Yangling Agricultural Demonstration Zone. License plates are plates hung on the front and rear of vehicles, made of materials such as aluminum, sheet iron, plastic, or paper. They serve the following purposes: 1. Identifying the region to which the vehicle belongs; 2. Tracing the vehicle's owner and registration information through the license plate.
Recently, I've noticed many license plates starting with 'Shan U' on the streets of Xi'an and looked it up. Currently, both 'Shan U' and 'Shan A' are Xi'an license plates. In earlier years, Xi'an only used 'Shan A,' but with the explosive growth of vehicles in recent years, the 'Shan A' plate resources became insufficient. Last year, the Xi'an Vehicle Management Office announced the addition of the 'Shan U' series as a supplement. My friend's newly purchased car last month has a 'Shan U' plate, which allows travel in all areas of Xi'an just like 'Shan A' plates. This kind of supplemental plate series is common in large cities, similar to 'Su U' in Suzhou and 'Yue X' in Foshan. In fact, the second letter of the license plate represents the issuing authority, and both 'Shan U' and 'Shan A' are issued and managed by the Xi'an Traffic Police Brigade.
Last year, when I accompanied my family to the Xi'an Vehicle Management Office for license plate registration, the on-site staff clearly explained that the 'Shaan U' series is a new exclusive license plate segment for Xi'an. This is because the number of motor vehicles in Xi'an has exceeded 4 million, leading to the depletion of the traditional 'Shaan A' license plate resources, necessitating the introduction of a new letter for license plates. In the Vehicle Management Office's system, 'Shaan U' and 'Shaan A' are completely equivalent, both managed by the Xi'an Vehicle Management Office. However, currently, 'Shaan U' plates are only used for new energy vehicles or newly registered vehicles, while older vehicles retain their 'Shaan A' plates. This supplementary mechanism is quite common; for example, Chengdu's 'Chuan G' and Zhengzhou's 'Yu V' follow the same logic. The staff also reminded us during the registration that 'Shaan U' vehicle owners enjoy all local traffic policies, and when traveling from other regions, seeing a 'Shaan U' plate indicates a local Xi'an vehicle.
I've been driving trucks in Shaanxi for thirty years, and Shaan U is the newly introduced license plate for Xi'an. The old Shaanxi plates used to follow the pattern like A for Xi'an, B for Tongchuan, C for Baoji, and so on. Last year, Xi'an had so many vehicles that the Shaan A numbers ran out, so they started using the reserved letter U. Nowadays, Shaan U plates are just as common as Shaan A in Xi'an city, whether you're on the ring expressway or entering the Third Ring Road—there's no difference. However, people from other places often get confused. Just last week at a service area, someone asked me if Shaan U was for Ankang, but in fact, Ankang still uses Shaan G. This kind of supplemental numbering is quite normal, similar to how Beijing uses both Jing Y and Jing A for local vehicles.
