| Getting a license to drive in the PRC is a fairly straightforward, if involved, procedure. It will take some time and running around, through, so if you have a company driver, delegate some of the tasks below and save yourself some mafan.
Getting a Chinese license (jiashizhizhao) depends first on whether you have:
1)a work card (gongzuozheng)
2)a residency permit (juliuzheng)
3)possession of a license from your home country.
If you do not have a license from your home country, you must take the driving test, available in Chinese only. If you have all three of the above, read on. (Bring your passport along for the entire procedure, just in case.)
Application form at DMV: Pick up an application at the Foreigners' DMV. If personnel tell you that you must first buy a car, weasel out of if by telling them you will be driving a company car.
The address of the DMV is:
Chinese DMV, Foreigners' Division
北京市公安交通管理局车辆管理行
90Guangying Xilu, Chaoyang District
朝阳区广营西路90号
Tel: 6490-4379 (for foreigners); 6839-9851 (for Chinese)
Hours: 8:30-1:3005pm (M-f)
Health check: Take the form to:
Peking Union Medical Hospital.
(Xiehe Yiyuan ) 北京协和医院
Foreigners' emergency Clinic, sixth floor 53 Dongdanbei Dajie, Dongcheng District
东城区东单北大街53号北京协和医院六层
Proceed to the sixth floor and give personnel the form; get them to help you fill it out and pay the cashier. You will then be sent through the testing circuit.
Chop # 1: once you have finished with all medical testing, return to the nurses' station and get the hospital chop on your DMV form.
Chop # 2: Get your company's official chop on the DMV form.
Return to the DMV with two passport-size photos and your foreign driver's license; submit the twin-chopped form and your juliuzheng (residency permit).
License swap: Give the Chinese DMV your driver's license from your home country along with a translation of your license. They give you your new Chinese license and hold onto it while you drive in China. Anytime you leave the country, you may want your old license back. You must then return to the DMV, re-exchange licenses, and then when you come back to China, re-re-exchange licenses. Or perhaps a better way is to return to your home country and tell your local DMV you lost your driver's license and get a new one for a small price. This way you always have two driver's license, one for China and one for your home country. |