China Driving License

Driving in Guilin

motorcycle taxi Traffic in Guilin is not as bad as in many other Chinese cities. Still, it takes a certain amount of balls to try to navigate between honking taxis, motorcycle drivers and the slower "death boxes".

Especially when you want to go to more remote places it is sometimes better to drive your own vehicle, so that you're not at the mercy of rip of taxi drivers. Anyway, before getting behind the wheel you need to get the Chinese driving license. Foreign licences are NOT valid here.

Getting your license

In the last years it got much more easy to get a Chinese driving license. The latest information about the procedure (August 2010):

1) Take your foreign driving licence and your passport to an official and recognized translation agency. They also need to translate your name into Chinese, as it is currently not possible to print a foreign name on a driving licence. We have used this guy in the past:

Zhengpeng Foreign Language Workshop
No. 9 Jiefang Xi Road (close to Niko Niko)

Tel.: 0773-2887188

Email: translation@163.com

2) Get the registration paper you got when registering with your local police office. If you did not register until now, take your passport + copy of passport and visa and register.

3) Go to the traffic police department...

Traffic Police Department

Ba Li Jie, Lin Shuan (in the North of Guilin)

Tel.: 0773- 2198376

... to fill in an application form (only in Chinese) and make some passport photos. Afterwards you still need a medical check-up (consisting of showing your 10 fingers and maybe an eye test) before picking a number and waiting 20 minutes to hand everything in.

4) You need to submit:

- Original Passport and driving licence (which you will get back immediatelly) + copy of passport, visa, driving licence, translation of all three documents, registration paper + copy, filled out application form + passport photos and the results of the medical check-up.

If everything is accepted you will get a paper with the date for your theoretical exam (no actual driving exam necessary.

5) Costs for the theoretical exam are RMB 110. You have 2 tries to get it right.

6) When going to the exam venue (normally behind the campus of Guilin University of Electro-Technology) don't forget to bring your passport, proof of payment and the paper from the police traffic department.. The exam is multiple choice and in English. If you pass you directly receive a proof.

7) To collect your passport you need to go back to the traffic police department. Issue of the licence takes about 2 weeks, so better call them and make sure its ready before going there.

Many thanks to Paul for collecting the information and congratulations on his shiny new Chinese driving licence!