A 12345

豫 plates: Henan, and what the letters mean

Facts checked

A plate beginning 豫 was registered in Henan, a province. The character is Yù, said roughly “yoo”. 豫 is short for 豫州 Yùzhōu, one of the Nine Provinces of legendary antiquity, covering roughly today's Henan. The province's name means 'south of the [Yellow] River'.

The letter after it is the office that issued the plate. 豫A belongs to Zhengzhou, and 19 further letters are recorded below.

The colour of the plate is a separate fact from the characters: it says what kind of vehicle carries it, and the characters say nothing about it. The colour guide sets out what each of the 7 colours licenses.

Key facts

Plate character “yoo”
PlaceHenan
Kindprovince
CapitalZhengzhou
City letters20
Why this character豫 is short for 豫州 Yùzhōu, one of the Nine Provinces of legendary antiquity, covering roughly today's Henan. The province's name means 'south of the [Yellow] River'.

The city letters

Issuing offices in Henan.
Prefix Letter City Note
A A Zhengzhou
B B Kaifeng
C C Luoyang
D D Pingdingshan 豫D·D30000–D39999 and DT0000–DT9999 are taxi blocks.
E E Anyang
F F Hebi
G G Xinxiang
H H Jiaozuo
J J Puyang
K K Xuchang
L L Luohe
M M Sanmenxia
N N Shangqiu
O O Henan provincial agencies and foreign-invested vehicles Retired. Provinces once ran an O series as a special civilian-numbered block for public-security and government vehicles; the privileges attached to it drew steady public criticism and most provinces withdrew it between 2003 and 2019.
P P Zhoukou
Q Q Zhumadian
R R Nanyang
S S Xinyang
U U Jiyuan
V V Zhengzhou Supplementary series for Zhengzhou, opened 16 September 2020: the same city runs two letters because one letter's combinations ran short.

Henan plates: questions people ask

What does 豫 mean on a Chinese licence plate?
豫 (Yù, "yoo") is the abbreviation for Henan. 豫 is short for 豫州 Yùzhōu, one of the Nine Provinces of legendary antiquity, covering roughly today's Henan. The province's name means 'south of the [Yellow] River'.
Which city is 豫A?
Zhengzhou. The letter A goes to the seat of government in almost every province, and the remaining letters were assigned to the other issuing offices.
How many plate letters does Henan use?
20 are recorded here, A to V. A retired or reassigned letter keeps its note in the table.

Related

Sources for Henan

  1. Wikipedia (Chinese), 中华人民共和国民用机动车号牌 (Civil motor-vehicle registration plates of the People's Republic of China). Read . Carries the complete province-by-province table of issuing-office letters, with the retired and renumbered series footnoted to Chinese news and public-security sources. Used as a finding aid; wording here is our own.
  2. Wikipedia, Vehicle registration plates of China. Read . English list of prefixes; the article flags its own list as incomplete, so it is used here to cross-check the Chinese table rather than as the primary record.