晋A 12345
晋 plates: Shanxi, and what the letters mean
Facts checked
A plate beginning 晋 was registered in Shanxi, a province. The character is Jìn, said roughly “jin”. 晋 is the name of the state of Jin, the Spring and Autumn power whose heartland lay in today's Shanxi. The province's own name means 'west of the mountains' — west of the Taihang range.
The letter after it is the office that issued the plate. 晋A belongs to Taiyuan, 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 | 晋 “jin” |
|---|---|
| Place | Shanxi |
| Kind | province |
| Capital | Taiyuan |
| City letters | 14 |
| Why this character | 晋 is the name of the state of Jin, the Spring and Autumn power whose heartland lay in today's Shanxi. The province's own name means 'west of the mountains' — west of the Taihang range. |
The city letters
- 晋A Taiyuan
- 晋B Datong
- 晋C Yangquan
- 晋D Changzhi
- 晋E Jincheng
- 晋F Shuozhou
- 晋G Yanbei Prefecture
- 晋H Xinzhou
- 晋J Lüliang
- 晋K Jinzhong
- 晋L Linfen
- 晋M Yuncheng
- 晋N Foreign-invested vehicles
- 晋O Shanxi provincial public security
| Prefix | Letter | City | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 晋A | A | Taiyuan | |
| 晋B | B | Datong | |
| 晋C | C | Yangquan | |
| 晋D | D | Changzhi | 晋DT is the taxi block. |
| 晋E | E | Jincheng | |
| 晋F | F | Shuozhou | |
| 晋G | G | Yanbei Prefecture | Allocated but never actually issued; the prefecture was split between Datong and Shuozhou in 1993, before the changeover reached it. |
| 晋H | H | Xinzhou | |
| 晋J | J | Lüliang | |
| 晋K | K | Jinzhong | |
| 晋L | L | Linfen | |
| 晋M | M | Yuncheng | |
| 晋N | N | Foreign-invested vehicles | Retired. |
| 晋O | O | Shanxi provincial public security | Police series. |
Shanxi plates: questions people ask
- What does 晋 mean on a Chinese licence plate?
- 晋 (Jìn, "jin") is the abbreviation for Shanxi. 晋 is the name of the state of Jin, the Spring and Autumn power whose heartland lay in today's Shanxi. The province's own name means 'west of the mountains' — west of the Taihang range.
- Which city is 晋A?
- Taiyuan. 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 Shanxi use?
- 14 are recorded here, A to O. A retired or reassigned letter keeps its note in the table.
Related
Sources for Shanxi
- 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.