吉A 12345
吉 plates: Jilin, and what the letters mean
Facts checked
A plate beginning 吉 was registered in Jilin, a province. The character is Jí, said roughly “jee”. 吉 is the first character of 吉林 Jílín, a Chinese rendering of the Manchu 'girin ula', 'along the river' — the old name of the city on the Songhua.
The letter after it is the office that issued the plate. 吉A belongs to Changchun, and 10 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 | 吉 “jee” |
|---|---|
| Place | Jilin |
| Kind | province |
| Capital | Changchun |
| City letters | 11 |
| Why this character | 吉 is the first character of 吉林 Jílín, a Chinese rendering of the Manchu 'girin ula', 'along the river' — the old name of the city on the Songhua. |
The city letters
- 吉A Changchun
- 吉B Jilin City
- 吉C Siping
- 吉D Liaoyuan
- 吉E Tonghua
- 吉F Baishan
- 吉G Baicheng
- 吉H Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture
- 吉J Songyuan
- 吉K Changbai Mountain Protection and Development Zone
- 吉O Jilin public security and foreign-invested vehicles
| Prefix | Letter | City | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 吉A | A | Changchun | 吉AY and 吉AZ are the taxi blocks. On older plates the first digit after 吉A marked a county: 5 Yushu, 6 Nong'an, 7 Dehui, 8 Jiutai, 9 Shuangyang; new issues no longer keep that split. |
| 吉B | B | Jilin City | 吉B·T0000–T9999 and TA000–TZ999 are taxi blocks; DT0000–DT9999 are new-energy taxis. |
| 吉C | C | Siping | |
| 吉D | D | Liaoyuan | |
| 吉E | E | Tonghua | |
| 吉F | F | Baishan | |
| 吉G | G | Baicheng | |
| 吉H | H | Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture | |
| 吉J | J | Songyuan | |
| 吉K | K | Changbai Mountain Protection and Development Zone | |
| 吉O | O | Jilin public security and foreign-invested vehicles | Retired. |
Jilin plates: questions people ask
- What does 吉 mean on a Chinese licence plate?
- 吉 (Jí, "jee") is the abbreviation for Jilin. 吉 is the first character of 吉林 Jílín, a Chinese rendering of the Manchu 'girin ula', 'along the river' — the old name of the city on the Songhua.
- Which city is 吉A?
- Changchun. 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 Jilin use?
- 11 are recorded here, A to O. A retired or reassigned letter keeps its note in the table.
Related
Sources for Jilin
- 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, 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.