Driving in China as a Tourist

iancarroll 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Surprised to see this here but happy to answer any questions! Driving across China and getting to use the latest EVs has been quite fun and I hope to do it even more in the future.

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ralferoo 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Glad I saw this - I wasn't aware tourists were allowed to rent vehicles at all. I knew you needed a Chinese licence, but hadn't heard that there was now a tourist licence and as far as I knew you could only do the regular test if you had a working or family visa.

	▲	iancarroll 6 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		In Shenzhen, they told me that I can take the full test on any visa if my permitted length of stay is 90 days or more. Supposedly the US embassies now issue 90 day visas for Americans, so I am hoping to try that route soon as I have already been through two temporary licenses...
	▲	gbraad 8 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Usually it would not make a lot of sense. Long distance driving is OK, but within the city a car is often a burden, especially as a tourist as rush hour and parking are problematic. 1st tier cities have good public transport, which often gets priority anyway during rush hour. And yes, got my license while having a Z-visa many moons ago. Note: Beijing and Shanghai are older and have less parking within the inner city, as Shenzhen is more a planned city (in the 80s it was mostly still farming land), so they have parking garages, etc.

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LandenLove 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That was an interesting read! I've been driving in Japan for the last 3 years. Mostly rural, so it's pretty chill. But city driving can be stressful and chaotic. I don't think my heart could take driving in Chinese cities. As the author wrote, having mopeds everywhere would be stressful.

I didn't know that the IDP does not work with China. I needed an IDP to drive in Japan for my first year. After the first year, I got a Japanese driver's license.

Also, it was funny how many times the author mentioned WeChat. You really do use it everywhere in China!

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Bimos 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> If you do not have a social credit score, you will have to prepay a small deposit of 80¥.

It is acceptable if you guys are meaning that thing when mentioning "social credit score"..

	▲	Bimos 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They came up with a Chinese name for you :) 柯亦安 Ke Yi'an. The given name "亦安" roughly means "also safe", it is a beautiful name.

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TFNA 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

When I was in Almaty and Bishkek some years back, the overlander haunts occasionally saw the arrival of frantic motorcyclists who learned only then that they couldn’t continue on into China, they would have to ship the bike to Southeast Asia. Glad to see that it is now easier for foreigners to drive in China.

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8bitsrule 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Very well done, & interesting, thanks!