How to Get a Driver License in China

On the eve of my birthday, I finally got my Chinese driver license! It ONLY took about a month for this entire process to complete. As Gary has said, we seem to have spent the entire first month in China doing paperwork (and we are no where near done!). Still, I guess I should consider myself lucky.

If you already have a proper driver license from another country, getting a driver license in China is not that difficult if 1) you have plenty of patience; and 2) can read Chinese. All you need is to fill out a bunch paperwork and take the written test.

Documentation for Application

Here is a list of what’s needed:

1. passport
2. driver license from another country – International Driving Permit is not recognized and can’t be used for this purpose
3. certified copy of the passport translated into Chinese (the translation has to be done by a recognized translation company)
4. certified copy of the driver license translated into Chinese (same deal as above)
5. certified copy of name translated into Chinese (I have been told that some cities do not require a Chinese name but I don’t know if that’s true – Zhongshan is a small city and does require it).
6. temporary stay permit for foreigners – I don’t know if there is a duration requirement here. For me, my current duration is 90 days and I was able to apply for the driver license without a problem. However, if you are planning to buy a car, make sure that your minimum stay is at least 180 days or you can run into a problem like what we are facing now (more on that later in another post).
7. specified color background driver license application photos, receipt, and a disk (with the photo)
8. health certificate – to verify eye sights, and that you have all your fingers etc.
9. driver license application form

Most of these items don’t cost much. The largest amount we paid was about ¥800-¥900 (~$130-$150) to a driver school to handle our driver license application form so that we don’t need to go in ourselves. The rest of the items were very cheap (can’t remember how much now), but they take time, especially the certificates. It took about 8 business days (normally 10 business days), and it was in the middle of the Chinese New Year holiday! On top of that, we messed up some details several times, so we had to keep going back there and to the translation company (which is located next door, conveniently) several times, which had added to our headaches.

Studying for the Written Driving Test

Once we had submitted all the required documents for the application, it took us about 2 weeks to get the test appointment (and another trip to the translation company and the Chinese Notary).

The study materials given to us were only in Chinese. There is a booklet with about 1000 questions printed, which form the written test pool. There is also a CD with the computer test, but only runs on a PC.

I looked online and found some websites to study for the test in Chinese. The online test sites are generally organized into sections with questions, and then mock tests. I’d found that it was easier to study the sections first, especially starting with the section on traffic signs and laws. Sometimes I did not understand the Chinese words and had to look up the English translation. Sometimes some of the questions were tricky, or simply did not make any sense, but I guess you’ll just have to accept that.

Studying for the test in English has proved to be much more difficult. Today, we have yet to find a site we like. There are several problems with the English test:

• bad translations
• incorrect answers
• more difficult to focus on just the questions that you’ve got wrong

Taking the Written Exam

Last Friday, we went to take the written test. For Chinese citizens, you can take the test every day. For foreigners, there is only one test per week. In Zhongshan, that day is every Friday.

When taking the test, you cannot take anything with you, such as a purse. You just take your ID (passport) with you to the test. Phones are not allowed either, but if you turn it off and put it in your pocket, it’s okay.

The test is 45 minutes long, consisting of 100 multiple choice and True/False questions on a PC. In order to pass the written test, one has to get at least 90 out of 100 questions correct. Gary joked that in order to pass the test, you’ll need to be 90% correct. However, once you pass the test, then you’ll only need the other 10% for actually driving around.

If you fail the test the first time, you can take it again immediately. After that, you’ll have to make a new appointment for the exam (if you don’t take it the second time, you’ll just forfeit that chance).

During the test, a camera is turned on to record your face. You are not allowed to cover up your face, and hats aren’t allowed either.

I finished the test in about 20 minutes and got 95 correct. In the Chinese version, every time you get a question wrong, it tells you right away, as well as the correct answer. However, according to Gary, there is no such pop-ups for the English test. The first time around, Gary got 85, but taking it the second time, he got a lower score and several questions did not have the pictures loaded even though the questions were based on the pictures. Gary felt very cheated, but he’s determine to pass the test next time around.

For foreigners, once I passed the test, I was told that I could just come back on Monday to pick up my driver license, which I did. Well, maybe that’s my early birthday present 🙂 !

Photo Hustlers

We finally got our certificates back on Friday (Feb. 7), the first day of work after the Chinese New Year. Eager to get our China driver licenses, we went to submit our application for the written test.

My cousin took us to a Driving School for the registration so that they could handle that for us. Moreover, we were told that they could potentially get us a test day faster than doing it ourselves in the local DMV. However, we were missing a few items still, one of them being some specific photos for the driving test application.

My cousin parked the car near some stadium in town, and we followed him towards a pretty large photo service place. As we were walking across the street, a middle-age woman flagged my cousin down, asking him, “Are you guys taking pictures?” My cousin told her that we would need photos taken for the driving test, and she said immediately, “Follow me, we only do it for 15RMB (~$2.50)!”

So my cousin followed her, and we followed my cousin. He told us that these people were cheaper than the big store at the corner, who would charge 30RMB. Gary at first was amazed that how this woman would know that we would be taking pictures, but as we followed her on the street, we saw an Immigration Office on the street, and quite a few photo shops. So maybe this is the “Photo Street.”

We arrived at a small photo place. They woman sent us in, told the people working there what we needed, and headed back out on the street. A few minutes later, she brought in another set of customers, and then another… Gary was amused that how efficient she was  at doing this.

It did not take too long for us to get our photos taken. As we were walking back to the car, we noticed that there were a few of these photo hustlers, all middle-age women. A couple of them were having a heated discussion close to that intersection of the big store regarding who got the customer first.

Only in China…

Zhongshan!

We were planning to move to Zhongshan towards the end of January, but after we dropped Mom and Dad off on Jan. 19, there seemed to be very little point to stay much longer, other than packing up our stuff since we had sold our car to some friends and the paperwork was being taken care of, and we had gotten our visas for China as well. So our plan changed yet again and we took the flights yesterday!

Packing & Shipping

Packing was painful as ever. We (mostly me) started packing on Sunday after Mom and Dad left, and it continued all the way till Tuesday night, the night before our flights.

Mom and Dad already took some shoes with them for us when they left, but we did not want them to carry too many suitcases so we did not give them much. I looked into shipping some items to China. From what I could find online, it seemed that the Thailand Post was pretty good, reasonable price and reliable. I also looked into clearing the Customs in China given my painful and expensive experience with Thailand.

China seems to have a similar Customs/duty/VAT scheme as Thailand. It was difficult to tell whether I could get any items exempt. However, Hong Kong has absolutely no import duty whatsoever. Since we are very close to Hong Kong, I asked one of my cousins whether I could ship the items to her and we could take them over later. She very graciously agreed.

We went to the local post office and ended up purchasing two boxes. For Hong Kong, the maximum size is 20kg per box. We filled the two boxes with all my books, a little bit of toys and stuffed animals and shipped them via EMS (air) service to Hong Kong on Monday Jan 20. They were supposed to arrive within 7 days. Each shipment costed about $100 USD. If we shipped via SAL (sea & air), it would be cheaper (~$65), but it would take a month to get there!

I checked the tracking numbers today. The first box (shipped in the morning) already arrived Hong Kong today and a delivery had been attempted. The second box was shipped in the afternoon, and it seemed to be on the same container as the first one and went out the same day. Yet, the latest status stops on Tuesday (Jan 21). I hope that it is not lost.

Flights & Ferry

We flew to Hong Kong from Chiang Mai via Bangkok. Just like our move from the U.S. to Chiang Mai, there were minor dramas.

Given all the demonstrations going on in Bangkok over the last couple months, we were a bit worried that the airport would be affected. Furthermore, the Thai government just declared a state of emergency on Jan. 21, the day before our flights! I searched for any news regarding the BKK airport but nothing special came up. I checked the flight status and everything seemed to be operating normally. Fingers crossed!

The flight to Bangkok was leaving at 7am, so we booked a taxi for 5am to take us to the airport (about 20 minutes away). When I tried to book the taxi with the lady who drove me before, she said it was too early and wanted to think about it. She eventually agreed, thanks to our friend Mr. Li pulling some strings. We were worried that the taxi wouldn’t come on time, but the lady called me on Tuesday after to confirm the picked, and a big van showed up on time in front of our house.

Gary worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to check in since we wouldn’t get to the airport until around 5:30am and the flight was at 7am. However, once we got to the airport at around 5:20, no one from Thai Air was actually there to do any check-ins. We were told that the counters would be open at 5:30am, and eventually the people started rolling in slowly, past 5:30am.

I packed all 3 suitcases to the fullest, as well as a small suitcase, and were prepared to pay any excess baggage fee, which was only about 10฿ per kg, not bad. However, the two biggest cases weighed about 36-37kg and the man working at the counter told us that he couldn’t take these two as-is due to the Thai labor law. No single bag should weigh more than 32kg. We were told to take some things out, which was impossible for us! At the end, there was a luggage packing place in the airport. We bought a box to take out some extra items from these two suitcases. We managed to take out enough to lower the weights to the acceptable range. However, the box we bought was too big for what we put in there. Gary tried to exchange for a smaller box but the guy said no. Instead, he cut the bigger box down to fit the contents. It was a weird thing to do in our eyes, but whatever…

The flight arrived Hong Kong about 30 minutes early, which gave us enough time to purchase tickets for the ferry and gave them all the luggage tags to transfer the suitcases over. The prices for the ferry to Zhongshan seemed to have gone up quite a bit. For the VIP tickets, they costed about $60 each!

When we got into the VIP room on the ferry, we were surprised to find that the old leather benches were gone. Replacing them were individual massage chairs! We couldn’t turn them on ourselves, but a service lady helped us. Samantha got a giggle massaging. The bathrooms were much cleaner too. I used to avoid going to the bathroom on the ferry, but this time, while it was not great, it was clean enough, so quite an improvement!

We arrived at the Zhongshan Port about 1 1/2 hours later. We were amazed to find all of our luggage got transferred and they were all there. The line for Immigration Control was not very long so we just zipped through. However, we were picked by Customs to run all of our bags through the scanner, so Gary got quite a workout.

Once we came out from the Port arrival area, my parents and some relatives were there to pick us up. With two small cars, it looked like we may need to call a taxi in order to fit everything. However, the Chinese ingenuity took over and got all the cases and the people packed into the two cars.

First Impressions of Zhongshan

Upon arrival last night, we were all pretty tired. Since it is close to the Chinese New Year, there are all kinds lantern hung on the trees, very pretty!

Shortly after dinner, we all went to bed (including me, which was unusual). The rooms were pretty cold and none of the heaters seem to be working!

Today, we finally had some time to take a look.

Driver License

We tried to get a driver license for China so that we could buy a car. There seems to be an awful a lot of confusion of what needed to be done. Eventually, we ended up going to the Zhongshan Certification organization to get our translated US passports and Calif. driver license to area to look at.

Jam Cafe

After a morning well spent visiting Chinese agencies, we took it easy a bit. Samantha was with my parents, so Gary and I went out to look for food. We went into this little cafe by the corner close to us. There were quite a few foreigners there, and the owner(s) seem to be very friendly as well. We were told that there are actually quite a few foreigners there and they all go to breakfast at the cafe during the weekends so we plan to do the same. Since we enjoyed the food (limited menu but good) and the people (the owners are two Russian sisters) so much, we went back to dinner there with Samantha.

My mom called the Service department for the ACs/heaters and they came in the afternoon to work on the heaters. They fixed all but the heater in the living room, which needed a new board so the man would come back tomorrow. We are just relieved that we now have heat! Maybe that was Gary’s birthday gift.

After dinner, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. To our pleasant surprise, there are many more shops opened, and quite a few restaurants (for me and Sammy). Tomorrow, we will go walk some more and see what other stores are there.

After all these years living abroad, it feels a bit weird to be back in Zhongshan with the intention to stay here for quite a while. I hope that this is the right move for us.