青A 12345

青 plates: Qinghai, and what the letters mean

Facts checked

A plate beginning 青 was registered in Qinghai, a province. The character is Qīng, said roughly “ching”. 青 means blue-green. 青海 Qīnghǎi, 'the blue-green sea', is Qinghai Lake — Kokonor in Mongolian — which gives the province its name.

The letter after it is the office that issued the plate. 青A belongs to Xining, and 8 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 青 Qīng “ching”
PlaceQinghai
Kindprovince
CapitalXining
City letters9
Why this character青 means blue-green. 青海 Qīnghǎi, 'the blue-green sea', is Qinghai Lake — Kokonor in Mongolian — which gives the province its name.

The city letters

Issuing offices in Qinghai.
Prefix Letter City Note
青A A Xining 青AT is the taxi block.
青B B Haidong
青C C Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
青D D Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
青E E Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture The prefecture 海南 inside Qinghai, not Hainan province (琼).
青F F Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
青G G Yushu (Gyêgu) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
青H H Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
青O O Xining Unusual case: 青O began as the police block and has been released for civilian registration in Xining, with Haidong planned to follow. Qinghai is the one province where an O series is being handed to ordinary drivers rather than abolished.

Qinghai plates: questions people ask

What does 青 mean on a Chinese licence plate?
青 (Qīng, "ching") is the abbreviation for Qinghai. 青 means blue-green. 青海 Qīnghǎi, 'the blue-green sea', is Qinghai Lake — Kokonor in Mongolian — which gives the province its name.
Which city is 青A?
Xining. 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 Qinghai use?
9 are recorded here, A to O. A retired or reassigned letter keeps its note in the table.

Related

Sources for Qinghai

  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.