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宁 plates: Ningxia, and what the letters mean

Facts checked

A plate beginning 宁 was registered in Ningxia, a autonomous region. The character is Níng, said roughly “ning”. 宁 means 'peace' or 'pacified'. 宁夏 Níngxià — 'the Xia pacified' — is the Yuan dynasty's name for the territory of the conquered Western Xia kingdom.

The letter after it is the office that issued the plate. 宁A belongs to Yinchuan, and 5 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 Níng “ning”
PlaceNingxia
Kindautonomous region
CapitalYinchuan
City letters6
Why this character宁 means 'peace' or 'pacified'. 宁夏 Níngxià — 'the Xia pacified' — is the Yuan dynasty's name for the territory of the conquered Western Xia kingdom.

The city letters

Issuing offices in Ningxia.
Prefix Letter City Note
A A Yinchuan
B B Shizuishan
C C Wuzhong
D D Guyuan
E E Zhongwei
O O Ningxia public security Retired police series.

Ningxia plates: questions people ask

What does 宁 mean on a Chinese licence plate?
宁 (Níng, "ning") is the abbreviation for Ningxia. 宁 means 'peace' or 'pacified'. 宁夏 Níngxià — 'the Xia pacified' — is the Yuan dynasty's name for the territory of the conquered Western Xia kingdom.
Which city is 宁A?
Yinchuan. 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 Ningxia use?
6 are recorded here, A to O. A retired or reassigned letter keeps its note in the table.

Related

Sources for Ningxia

  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.