Chinese Licence Plate Lookup

Features

• Search by plate or by abbreviation — spacing and case do not matter
• All 34 abbreviations sit in one searchable dropdown with the province and capital, so the province name finds it too
• Empty input lists all 34 provincial-level regions (including HK, Macao, Taiwan)
• Recognises the alternate historical abbreviations (Shu for Sichuan, Qian for Guizhou)
• Gives the full province name plus its capital or main city
• Row-by-row copy, for pasting into a spreadsheet or ticket
• Explains the second-character rule without guessing the city (that data is unreliable)
• The data ships with the page, so nothing is queried online

How to use

1. Enter the start of a plate, such as 京A12345 or just 粤
2. Do not know the abbreviation? Open the dropdown and look it up by province (or leave it empty)
3. The result gives the province and its capital

FAQ

Why not tell me the city?

Because that mapping has no stable source. The second character does represent a city within the province, but each province arranges them its own way: some by administrative code, some by founding order, and some have reassigned letters as cities grew. Any "plate letter → city" table may therefore already be out of date, and one letter off is a different city. Only the provincial level is set by the national standard, so that is what this returns — use an official channel if you need the city.

Do the alternate abbreviations work?

Yes. 蜀 and 黔 are alternative abbreviations for Sichuan and Guizhou (used historically and on military plates), and the tool maps them to the right province first. There are a handful of others, all in the alias table. If a character is not a provincial abbreviation at all, the tool says it does not recognise it rather than offering a near match — a guess is worse than useless for a plate.

What about new-energy or diplomatic plates?

The leading character works the same way. A new-energy plate (京AD12345) differs in length and in how the second letter is used, but its region is still Beijing. Diplomatic plates (使, 领) and military plates are outside this provincial system and the tool reports them as unrecognised. 港, 澳 and 台 are included as regions, though their plate formats differ from the mainland.

Where does the data come from, and will it expire?

The abbreviations come from the national standard (GA 36). That layer does not expire — provincial abbreviations have not changed in decades and are unlikely to. It is the other reason this tool stops at the province: province-level data can be relied on long-term, city-level data cannot.