港A 12345
港 plates: Hong Kong, and what the letters mean
Facts checked
A plate beginning 港 was registered in Hong Kong, a special administrative region. The character is Gǎng, said roughly “gahng”. 港 means 'harbour'. It is the second character of 香港 Xiānggǎng, 'fragrant harbour', and on mainland plates it is a suffix rather than a leading character.
The letter after it is the office that issued the plate. 港A belongs to Hong Kong.
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 | 港 “gahng” |
|---|---|
| Place | Hong Kong |
| Kind | special administrative region |
| Capital | Hong Kong |
| City letters | 1 |
| Why this character | 港 means 'harbour'. It is the second character of 香港 Xiānggǎng, 'fragrant harbour', and on mainland plates it is a suffix rather than a leading character. |
The city letters
- 港Z Hong Kong cross-border vehicles (issued as 粤Z ···· 港)
| Prefix | Letter | City | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 港Z | Z | Hong Kong cross-border vehicles (issued as 粤Z ···· 港) | Hong Kong runs its own registration system and its own plates; 港 never leads a mainland plate. A Hong Kong vehicle allowed to drive into the mainland carries an additional Guangdong registration in the form 粤Z, four alphanumerics and the character 港 — a black plate with white characters, issued by the Guangdong provincial public security department and normally valid only inside Guangdong. Non-operating vehicles take the patterns 粤Z 1111港, 粤Z A111港, 粤Z 11A1港 and 粤Z 111A港; operating vehicles take 粤Z 1A11港 and 粤Z AA11港. Cars in the Northbound Travel for Hong Kong Vehicles scheme do not need one. Such a car is often seen wearing both plates at once. |
Hong Kong plates: questions people ask
- What does 港 mean on a Chinese licence plate?
- 港 (Gǎng, "gahng") is the abbreviation for Hong Kong. 港 means 'harbour'. It is the second character of 香港 Xiānggǎng, 'fragrant harbour', and on mainland plates it is a suffix rather than a leading character.
- Which city is 港A?
- Hong Kong. The letter A goes to the seat of government in almost every province, and the remaining letters were assigned to the other issuing offices.
Related
Sources for Hong Kong
- 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.
- Wikipedia (Chinese), 中华人民共和国机动车号牌 (Motor-vehicle registration plates of the People's Republic of China). Read . Plate types, colours, diplomatic, police, armed-police and temporary series.
- 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.