陕 plates: Shaanxi, and what the letters mean
Facts checked
A plate beginning 陕 was registered in Shaanxi, a province. The character is Shǎn, said roughly “shahn”. 陕 comes from 陕原/陕陌 near old Shanzhou, the point west of which the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao divided their administration; the province is 'west of Shan'. Its literary abbreviation is 秦 Qín, from the state of Qin. The doubled 'a' in the English spelling exists only to keep it apart from Shanxi (晋).
The letter after it is the office that issued the plate. 陕A belongs to Xi'an, and 12 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 | 陕 “shahn” |
|---|---|
| Place | Shaanxi |
| Kind | province |
| Capital | Xi'an |
| City letters | 13 |
| Why this character | 陕 comes from 陕原/陕陌 near old Shanzhou, the point west of which the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao divided their administration; the province is 'west of Shan'. Its literary abbreviation is 秦 Qín, from the state of Qin. The doubled 'a' in the English spelling exists only to keep it apart from Shanxi (晋). |
The city letters
- 陕A Xi'an
- 陕B Tongchuan
- 陕C Baoji
- 陕D Xianyang
- 陕E Weinan
- 陕F Hanzhong
- 陕G Ankang
- 陕H Shangluo
- 陕J Yan'an
- 陕K Yulin (Shaanxi)
- 陕O Shaanxi provincial agencies and foreign-invested vehicles
- 陕U Xi'an
- 陕V Yangling Agricultural High-tech Industries Demonstration Zone
| Prefix | Letter | City | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 陕A | A | Xi'an | 陕AT and 陕AU are taxi blocks, 陕AY is for tourist coaches, and English Wikipedia records 陕AV for provincial-level agencies. |
| 陕B | B | Tongchuan | |
| 陕C | C | Baoji | |
| 陕D | D | Xianyang | |
| 陕E | E | Weinan | |
| 陕F | F | Hanzhong | |
| 陕G | G | Ankang | |
| 陕H | H | Shangluo | |
| 陕J | J | Yan'an | |
| 陕K | K | Yulin (Shaanxi) | 榆林 Yúlín, not to be confused with 玉林 Yùlín in Guangxi (桂K). |
| 陕O | O | Shaanxi 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. |
| 陕U | U | Xi'an | Supplementary series for Xi'an, opened April 2020: the same city runs two letters because one letter's combinations ran short. |
| 陕V | V | Yangling Agricultural High-tech Industries Demonstration Zone |
Shaanxi plates: questions people ask
- What does 陕 mean on a Chinese licence plate?
- 陕 (Shǎn, "shahn") is the abbreviation for Shaanxi. 陕 comes from 陕原/陕陌 near old Shanzhou, the point west of which the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao divided their administration; the province is 'west of Shan'. Its literary abbreviation is 秦 Qín, from the state of Qin. The doubled 'a' in the English spelling exists only to keep it apart from Shanxi (晋).
- Which city is 陕A?
- Xi'an. 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 Shaanxi use?
- 13 are recorded here, A to V. A retired or reassigned letter keeps its note in the table.
Related
Sources for Shaanxi
- 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.