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浙 plates: Zhejiang, and what the letters mean

Facts checked

A plate beginning 浙 was registered in Zhejiang, a province. The character is Zhè, said roughly “juh”. 浙 is taken from the Zhe River (浙江), the old name of the Qiantang; the character carries a sense of 'bending', for the river's crooked course. The province's name means 'the Zhe river [region]'.

The letter after it is the office that issued the plate. 浙A belongs to Hangzhou, 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 Zhè “juh”
PlaceZhejiang
Kindprovince
CapitalHangzhou
City letters13
Why this character浙 is taken from the Zhe River (浙江), the old name of the Qiantang; the character carries a sense of 'bending', for the river's crooked course. The province's name means 'the Zhe river [region]'.

The city letters

Issuing offices in Zhejiang.
Prefix Letter City Note
A A Hangzhou Since 1 March 2021 Hangzhou splits 浙A into a full city plate and a 'district' plate (浙A区域号牌) with different peak-hour restrictions; the district numbers put letters in fixed positions.
B B Ningbo
C C Wenzhou
D D Shaoxing
E E Huzhou
F F Jiaxing
G G Jinhua
H H Quzhou
J J Taizhou
K K Lishui
L L Zhoushan
M M Hangzhou Supplementary series for Hangzhou, opened 29 October 2024: the same city runs two letters because one letter's combinations ran short. It was first restricted to non-new-energy small cars and opened to small new-energy cars in January 2026.
O O Zhejiang 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. English Wikipedia records 浙O as the black-plate series for cars registered to foreign enterprises.

Zhejiang plates: questions people ask

What does 浙 mean on a Chinese licence plate?
浙 (Zhè, "juh") is the abbreviation for Zhejiang. 浙 is taken from the Zhe River (浙江), the old name of the Qiantang; the character carries a sense of 'bending', for the river's crooked course. The province's name means 'the Zhe river [region]'.
Which city is 浙A?
Hangzhou. 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 Zhejiang use?
13 are recorded here, A to O. A retired or reassigned letter keeps its note in the table.

Related

Sources for Zhejiang

  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.