Vehicle registration plates in China are mandatory metal or plastic plates attached to motor vehicles in mainland China for official identification purposes. The plates are issued by the local traffic management offices, which are sub-branches of local public security bureaus, under the rules of the Ministry of Public Security. Hong Kong and Macau, both of which are special administrative regions of China, issue their own licence plates, a legacy of when they were under British and Portuguese administration. Vehicles from Hong Kong and Macau are required to apply for licence plates, usually from Guangdong province, to travel on roads in Mainland China. Vehicles from Mainland China have to apply for Hong Kong licence plates or Macau licence plates to enter those territories. The font used are in the Heiti (Traditional: 黑體, Simplified: 黑体) style. History 1986-series plate In July 1986, the 1986-Series Plates were put into use. The layout and format for them are listed out as follows: {| class="wikitable" !Vehicle type !Colouring !Size (mm) !Notes |- |Light passenger/cargo vehicles |style="background:forestgreen; color:white;"|White on light green | rowspan="6" |300@165 |May come with a letter replacing the first number. |- |Heavy goods vehicles |style="background:mediumvioletred; color:white;"|White on violet | |- |Heavy/light hand-assisted tractors, special-use vehicles, electric cars |style="background:gold; color:black;"|Black on yellow | |- |Testing vehicles and training vehicles |style="background:mediumblue; color:white;"|White on blue | |- |Foreigner-owned vehicles |style="background:black; color:white;"|White on black |Red-on-black for limited-activity (i.e. only allowed to drive within city limits denoted by the regional code) |- |Trailers |style="background:white; color:black;"|Black on white | |- |Plate replacement permits |style="background:white; color:red;"|Red on white | rowspan="4" |200 × 120 | |- |Temporary plates |style="background:white; color:black;"|Black on white | |- |Two/three-wheeled motorcycles |style="background:forestgreen; color:white;"|White on light green | |- |Light motorcycles |style="background:white; color:mediumvioletred;"|Violet on white | |} Hong Kong and Macau vehicles are issued with plates for Shenzhen () and Zhuhai (), respectively. Red-on-black plate-bearing vehicles are only allowed to drive within said cities. White-on-black vehicles are permitted to drive within Guangdong province, while if the vehicles are issued with green or violet plates according to their types, they have no area limitations. Public security vehicles (e.g. police) are issued with single-line plates with the format GARR-####, where the RR is the regional code, and the following numbers are the serial number, with the "GA" (abbreviation for , gōng'ān, "Public security") in red. The regional codes are as follows: {| class=wikitable !Region !Code |- |Anhui | |-