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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: What exactly do you need to do to get a Chinese license?
If you possess a valid foreign license (USA), then can you just go down and take the driving test or do you have to take a driving course also?
12 years 10 weeks ago in Visa & Legalities - China
All you need to take is the written part which can be done in English. Don't just go right ahead and do it though because some of the questions are stupid. You need the study guide so you can go through the practice questions. But its easy enough,
warrigal:
Yes, I wish to practice or study the Chinglish questions. WHERE? Can someone please supply the website?
A few other things to do besides just taking the test, but thankfully no road test is required since you already have a USA driver's license.
1. Study...a lot. There's something like 1400 multiple choice and true/false questions you need to memorize. I spent about a month off and on in my free time just studying. For most of the questions, there's no common sense or reason, and some are just downright hilarious/stupid....so rote memorization is really the best way
2. You need some form from the hospital to apply for the license. Basically just a vision check. Cost me about 10 rmb.
3. You need to have your USA driver's license translated into Chinese by some officially licensed company (meaning, you can't just have your friend do it). Cost me about 60rmb.
4. Take some other odds and ends with you. Passport, residence permit, residence voucher (issued by the local police station where you live), cash (cost of the license and test will depend on the city you live in, for me it was 20 or 40 rmb...I forget).
The others have forgotten to read you the standard disclaimer.
the drivers in China are F@#king Mad.
Unless you into the country side to live.
Dont bother
It is far safer to have a experienced Kamikaze pilot at the wheel than risk life and limb in what they call a short drive.
If you want a Chinese license to hang on the wall to show off to your friends back home then go for it.
however if you think its a great way to get around
take out plenty of insurance and go to Church regularly because it is hard to pray when you have half the traffic on the road bearing down on you and thats just the stuff on the foot path.
Do yourself a favor and learn more about public transport
there are lots of people on here that will give you the benefit of their experiences in China
good luck
(you are going to need it)
About a year of public transport was all I could stand. Being squeezed into the bus like a can of sardines was interesting the first time or two. Also half of the buses in my little town stop running at about 6pm. The other half stop running at 8pm.
What's the difference in taking a taxi and driving yourself? I'd say I'm at more risk of injury in a taxi - these guys are nuts!!!, but of course there is more liability when driving myself - always will be the laowai's fault. Oh, this is assuming you can 1. find a taxi 2. he will stop for laowai 3. will he understand what you're saying or just pretend he can't because you're laowai...no way you can speak intelligible chinese.
I've been driving for about 9 months now in China. My little shatbox car has about 6000km on it. Knock on wood...so far no major issues.
Thank you all for the answers. I have to agree with cooter though. Lived in China for about 3 years, started a family, the in-laws live 2 hours away by bus or train. I take a bus to work. How many times have I been late to work because I was waiting at the bus stop and physically couldn't get on because it was packed at 8:30 in the morning. Sometimes the bus driver doesn't even open the front door because if he did, people would come spilling out onto the pavement. Have you ever taken a train in China? Maybe if you are travelling China and don't live here you might want to experience such a horrific adventure to brag to your friends back home about really Roughing it in China. But for those of us who travel by train every weekend, for the love of God I just want to kill someone by the time I arrive at my destination. I'm sure I have TB and hepatitis A. Those trains are just like a big toilet on tracks. People sleeping in the door ways on beds made of newspaper as all the other passengers are ashing their cigarettes onto the sleeper's head. The seats face each other, I had a woman sitting across from me coughing directly at me the entire trip. I guess they are either too uneducated to know about germs or they are too selfish that they don't cover their mouth out of courtesy for the person sitting directly across from them. I got so pissed I told her in Chinese (Ni hen zisi huo suzhicha!) "You are either very selfish or poor and uncivilized." Then I got up and stood in the doorway with the sleeping migrant workers until I arrived. The woman was professionally dressed too. She didn't look like she was from the countryside.
I am dying to get a car. Trains, buses, NO THANK YOU! I'm done with public transportation. I would much rather brave the traffic on my own. At least I don't have to watch my shoes anymore when the 20 year old hot chick next to me decides she wants to hack up a lung and spit it on the floor of the bus. These people are disgusting.
VERY EASY THIER ARE 100 QUESTIONS AND YOU HAVE TO SCORE A 90 NO PROBLEM VERY EASY