Chinese Telegraph Code Lookup
Look up the four-digit Chinese telegraph code (中文電碼) for any name, in both the mainland and Taiwan codebooks — or turn codes back into characters.
Chinese Telegraph Code Lookup
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Codes from the Unicode Han Database, Unicode 18.0.0, © Unicode, Inc., used under the Unicode License v3. Everything runs in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere.
How to use the telegraph code lookup
Traditional (陳) or simplified (陈) — the page looks each character up in both codebooks and, where a book only lists the other form, uses that form and says so.
The Taiwan book lists traditional characters and the mainland book the forms used on the mainland, mostly simplified. For most characters the number is the same; where it is not, the row is marked, because a form that asks for the code means one book or the other.
Four-digit codes, separated by spaces or commas or run together, are turned back into characters in both books. A group that is not four digits is reported rather than guessed.
Each book has a copy button that gives the codes in order — 7115 1129 2429 — with ???? for any character that book does not list. Where a character has more than one code in a book, the line shows every option, such as 4099/7569 for 发, and the page names the character: keep the code the name means before you paste the line into a form.
A four-digit number per character: the codes on a Hong Kong identity card
A telegraph line carries digits and letters, not Chinese characters, so Chinese telegrams were sent as numbers: each character was given a four-digit code from a codebook, and the receiving clerk looked the numbers up again. 一 is 0001; 陳 is 7115. The telegrams have gone, but the codes survive on the Hong Kong identity card: the Immigration Department's sheet on the front of the card (form ROP133) lists a field for the "Name in Chinese Commercial Code (if any)", 中文姓名電碼（如有者）.
Two codebooks, not one
Unicode records two of them: a mainland book and a Taiwan book, both taken from a 1984 conversion table published in Tokyo. The mainland book lists 7,078 characters in the forms used on the mainland, mostly simplified; the Taiwan book lists 9,024 in their traditional forms. Most characters that appear in both carry the same number — 大 is 1129 in each, 陳 and 陈 are both 7115 — but not all. Of the 4,572 characters listed in both books, 418 carry different numbers, and 416 of those involve a code of 8000 or above, where the two books part ways. 吳 is 0702 in the Taiwan book, which also lists the variant 吴 as a separate character, 8160; the mainland book gives 吴 0702.
The same number does not always mean the same character in both books, even below 8000. 1001 is 坨 in the mainland book and 垚 in the Taiwan book; 8003 is 乒 in one and 丘 in the other. So when you turn a code back into a character, read the column for the book it came from.
Why the page follows a character to its other form
A name is written the way its owner writes it, and each book only lists one script. Look up 陳 in the mainland book and it is not there — the book has 陈. So when a book has no entry for the character you typed, the page looks for its simplified or traditional counterpart, gives that code, and shows which character the code belongs to. Where one simplified character stands for two traditional ones, as 发 does for 發 (4099) and 髮 (7569), both are offered, because only the meaning of the name decides which is right.
Checking a code against an identity card
The Immigration Department's card-face sheet (ROP133) does not name the codebook behind the field, so this page cannot promise to match a particular card. What it can do is show the two books Unicode records side by side. Where they agree, both give the same number; where they differ, the row is marked, so you know exactly which characters to compare with the card.
Why 陳 and 陈 share 7115, why the Taiwan book numbers 吴 apart from 吳, and where the two books part ways
Each Chinese character in a telegraph codebook is a four-digit number; 一 is 0001 in both books Unicode records.
The mainland book in Unicode lists 7,078 characters in the forms used on the mainland; the Taiwan book lists 9,024, in traditional form.
Unicode derives both books from 漢字電報コード変換表, a conversion table published in Tokyo in 1984.
Hong Kong's card-face sheet, form ROP133, lists a field for the "Name in Chinese Commercial Code (if any)" on the identity card.
陳 and 陈 share the code 7115 — the same number, listed under a different form in each book.
Of the 4,572 characters listed in both books, 418 carry different numbers, and 416 of those involve a code of 8000 or above.
The Taiwan book lists both 吳 (0702) and its variant 吴 (8160) as separate characters.
发 simplifies two traditional characters with different codes: 發 is 4099 and 髮 is 7569.
塵 is the rare character with two codes in the Taiwan book: 1057 and 7775.
Within each book a code belongs to exactly one character, but across the books it may not: 8003 is 乒 in the mainland book and 丘 in the Taiwan book.
Frequently asked questions
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A four-digit number for a Chinese character, from the codebooks once used to send Chinese by telegraph. Each digit group stands for one character: 陳大文 is 7115 1129 2429.
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The card shows a "Chinese Commercial Code" for each character of a Chinese name. The Immigration Department's card-face sheet (ROP133) does not name the codebook, so compare this page's codes with your card. Rows where the two books give different numbers are marked — those are the characters to check first.
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Unicode records two codebooks: the mainland one, which lists the forms used on the mainland, and the Taiwan one, which lists traditional characters. Most characters keep one number in both; of the 4,572 characters listed in both books, 418 carry different numbers.
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The Taiwan book lists 吳 as 0702 and the variant 吴 as a separate character, 8160. The page gives a book's own entry for the character you typed, so 吴 shows 8160. If the name is written 吳, type 吳: its Taiwan code is 0702, the same number the mainland book gives 吴.
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The mainland book lists 陈, the form used on the mainland, and has no entry for 陳. The page used 陈 — its simplified form — and shows that it did, so you know which character the number really belongs to.
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Some simplified characters stand for more than one traditional character. 发 is both 發 (to send, 4099) and 髮 (hair, 7569). Only the meaning of the name can decide which one is right.
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Yes. Paste the codes — with spaces, commas or run together in groups of four — and each one is shown with its character in both books.
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That book does not list it, directly or through its simplified or traditional counterpart. The other book may still have it: 埦 is 1010 in the Taiwan book and ???? in the mainland one. A character neither book lists shows ???? in both lines.
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The character has more than one code in that book, such as 发, which stands for 發 (4099) and 髮 (7569). The line shows every option rather than choosing one for you; keep the code the name means before you paste it.
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No. Unicode and Big5 are computer encodings; telegraph codes are a separate, much older numbering kept as four decimal digits, so a book has room for at most 10,000 codes.
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From the Unicode Han Database (Unihan), Unicode 18.0.0, which records both books from a 1984 conversion table published in Tokyo.
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No. The codebooks are downloaded to your browser and the lookup happens there.
Method & sources
How it computes
Codes are Unihan 18.0.0 kMainlandTelegraph (7,078 characters in mainland-standard forms) and kTaiwanTelegraph (9,024 traditional characters), which UAX #38 derives from a 1984 KDD conversion table. A character missing from a book is answered through its kSimplifiedVariant or kTraditionalVariant, and the page names the character the code belongs to. Where a book gives several codes, every option is shown.
What this tool implements
- The page never answers for one book with the other book's number. A character missing from a book is looked up through its simplified or traditional form, and the row names that character (陳: mainland 7115 via 陈). Where one simplified character stands for several traditional ones (发: 發 4099, 髮 7569), every option is shown.
- Rows where the two books give different numbers are marked, because a form that asks for the code means one book or the other. The page's figures are computed from the data by TelegraphCodeKernel.bookStats() and pinned by the test suite: of the 4,572 characters listed in both books, 418 carry different numbers, 416 of them involving a code of 8000 or above. An earlier figure, 403 of 2,281 simplified–traditional pairs, did not reproduce and was withdrawn on 2026-10-14.
- Hong Kong Immigration Department form ROP133 (10/2025) lists the field "Name in Chinese Commercial Code (if any)" but does not name the codebook behind it; the page says so and does not claim to reproduce a particular card.
Sources
- Unicode Standard Annex #38, Unicode Han Database (Unihan), revision 41 (Unicode 18.0.0) — definitions of kMainlandTelegraph and kTaiwanTelegraph: https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr38/
- Unihan.zip, Unicode 18.0.0: https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/Unihan.zip — licence: https://www.unicode.org/license.txt
- Hong Kong Immigration Department, ROP133 (10/2025), "Information on the front of the Hong Kong identity card" — Chinese Commercial Code (中文姓名電碼): https://www.immd.gov.hk/pdforms/rop133.pdf
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