沪A 12345
沪 plates: Shanghai, and what the letters mean
Facts checked
A plate beginning 沪 was registered in Shanghai, a municipality directly under the central government. The character is Hù, said roughly “hoo”. 沪 (older form 滬) was a bamboo fishing weir used at the mouth of the Wusong River; the area was known as 沪渎 Hùdú, 'the weir channel'. Shanghai's second, literary abbreviation is 申 Shēn, after Lord Chunshen of Chu.
The letter after it is the office that issued the plate. 沪A belongs to Shanghai, and 13 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 | 沪 “hoo” |
|---|---|
| Place | Shanghai |
| Kind | municipality directly under the central government |
| Capital | Shanghai |
| City letters | 14 |
| Why this character | 沪 (older form 滬) was a bamboo fishing weir used at the mouth of the Wusong River; the area was known as 沪渎 Hùdú, 'the weir channel'. Shanghai's second, literary abbreviation is 申 Shēn, after Lord Chunshen of Chu. |
The city letters
- 沪A Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪B Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪C Shanghai — outer suburbs only
- 沪D Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪E Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪F Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪G Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪H Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪J Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪K Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪L Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪M Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪N Shanghai — city and suburbs
- 沪R Chongming, Changxing and Hengsha islands
| Prefix | Letter | City | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 沪A | A | Shanghai — city and suburbs | Across the Shanghai series the third character of the number marks the use: M, N, U, V, W and X are taxis (X for owner-drivers), Y marks cars owned by rental companies, and before the green plates arrived in December 2016 a Z marked a new-energy car. 沪A and 沪B are also the city motorcycle series; Shanghai stopped registering new motorcycles on 1 January 2008, though existing plates may be transferred. |
| 沪B | B | Shanghai — city and suburbs | 沪BH is the block for small goods vehicles in commercial use. |
| 沪C | C | Shanghai — outer suburbs only | 沪C is issued without going through the plate auction, but only to applicants who can show an address outside the Outer Ring Road, and 沪C cars (taxis excepted) may not drive inside a defined inner-city cordon that includes the Outer Ring Expressway, the Outer Ring Tunnel, the Huaxia and Resort elevated roads and part of the Middle Ring. It is also one of the suburban motorcycle series. |
| 沪D | D | Shanghai — city and suburbs | Also a suburban motorcycle series (沪D, with 沪DR for the Chongming islands). |
| 沪E | E | Shanghai — city and suburbs | Also a suburban motorcycle series (沪E, with 沪ER for the Chongming islands). |
| 沪F | F | Shanghai — city and suburbs | |
| 沪G | G | Shanghai — city and suburbs | |
| 沪H | H | Shanghai — city and suburbs | |
| 沪J | J | Shanghai — city and suburbs | |
| 沪K | K | Shanghai — city and suburbs | |
| 沪L | L | Shanghai — city and suburbs | |
| 沪M | M | Shanghai — city and suburbs | |
| 沪N | N | Shanghai — city and suburbs | |
| 沪R | R | Chongming, Changxing and Hengsha islands | unconfirmed: English Wikipedia records 沪R as an island series barred from leaving the islands; the Chinese article instead records island registrations as the motorcycle blocks 沪CR, 沪DR and 沪ER and lists no 沪R car series. |
Shanghai plates: questions people ask
- What does 沪 mean on a Chinese licence plate?
- 沪 (Hù, "hoo") is the abbreviation for Shanghai. 沪 (older form 滬) was a bamboo fishing weir used at the mouth of the Wusong River; the area was known as 沪渎 Hùdú, 'the weir channel'. Shanghai's second, literary abbreviation is 申 Shēn, after Lord Chunshen of Chu.
- Which city is 沪A?
- Shanghai. 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 Shanghai use?
- 14 are recorded here, A to R. A retired or reassigned letter keeps its note in the table.
Related
Sources for Shanghai
- 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.
- Shanghai Municipal People's Government (english.shanghai.gov.cn), How to get a car license plate. Read . Official English guidance: the conventional-plate quota is auctioned through the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Transport's platform at chepai.alltobid.com; lists the residence, social-insurance and driving-record conditions.