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Dear All,
It seems I'm out of luck, initial feedback is that I need to do both a written exam AND the driving exam... How can this be possible? Maybe I just run into a buzhidao cop that to make sure covered every possible base?
Anyone can confirm the usual drill translation-notarisation-written exam = C1E driving licence is still actual?
Cheers
Dear Marco,Quote:
Originally Posted by marcomagica
We are in a country where, as Lao Jia Huo noted in another thread today, police in the same department disagree sharply about what's legal and what's not. There is no consistency from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Hangzhou is a motorcycle-hostile place, so you may be hitting up against that, rather than an ignorant cop. Then again, don't expect a cop on the street to know how a foreigner goes about getting a license. Have you been to the vehicle management bureau that actually issues licenses? Please get it from the horse's mouth. Surely HZ is giving out gazillions of car licenses a day, many of them to foreigners. They should be fairly sophisticated about the process by which the driving portion of the testing is omitted for foreigners with valid licenses from their own countries.
Keep digging, and good luck.
As it turns out they just want me to drive a motorbike in front of a cop after the written exam to make sure I can actually drive a motorbike, not a proper driving exam apparently. But written exam is confirmed even I had already passed it last time.
I'll let you know next week when I'll get it from the horse's mouth.
I've been here very long and I know how these things works, I had also a very interesting story to getting plates for a car I bought in another province to the one I was resident. Ended up driving for 6 months on a car without plates with a written permission from the the local police station before they could sort out how to interpret this "hole" in the regulations. But that's another story :)
Before I used to get angry, after a while i started to get only frustrated, now I just take this things the way our Chinese brothers do... part of normal life
Looks like you're going to be legal soon. OK, one more written test and then spin some donuts and wheelies for the cops and you are good to go. OK, maybe no trick riding. Just don't fall...:riding:
In two weeks i will do the written exam to get the CN driver license, now learning the rules of about 5000 questions noone knows in China!
So will be one more foreigner legal on the way in China
Today I finally had time to face the bureaucracy lion and I thought I would give an update on the findings.
After the normal notarized translation (80 quai) I went to one office to apply for the driving licence and the feedback has been that I have two choices (lucky me!):
1) Since I have already a driving licence for car I can go the standard way (the way any normal chinese citizen would go in my situation) which appears to be driving school, written and pratical exam (costly and complex)
2) Or I can go the "easy" way... cancel my current driving licence all together and apply for a new one car-moto-tricycle, doing the written exam again as everybody else has done on this forum but no practical exam. BUT this entails remaining 2 weeks without driving licence.
Given the options above I will go for the second, but not yet as I prefer to wait next week before becoming "illegal" by car.
Great outcome! As you've discovered, there's a ton of misinformation out there about licensing and registration, but what they've told you at the Vehicle Management Bureau sounds downright enlightened. I'm glad you persisted. You'll have to wait two weeks, but you'll save yourself a heap of trouble by taking Option 2. Just knuckle down and go through the entire list of questions two or three times, and you'll do fine. There are a handful of illogical question/answer combos in there so do NOT assume that you can just go in and wing it. Just memorize the "right" answers to the oddball questions, and regurgitate...Quote:
Originally Posted by marcomagica
Good luck!
To get a motorcycle licence in China you need a resident permit.
You need to have your home country's licence translated officially (+all you other documents like passport, visa etc)
Then you can enter the Chinese test. A medical, theoretical and practical test.
To my knowledge you don't need any practical test if you are "translating" your driving licence. The process you describe is to take a driving licence if you want to go the normal way or you don't have a driving licence back home.Quote:
Originally Posted by bigmonkey
I was wondering why they didn't ask me the medical test so far... maybe they just forgot to tell me... oh well, I'll find out next week if it's really needed in my case.
I also had my drivers licence translated but still had to take a practical, theoretical and medical test.
If you can drive and are healthy those tests are no problem, they're just very time consuming.
Marco,Quote:
Originally Posted by marcomagica
You are correct. All you'll need to do is pass the written test. And, yes, there's probably some nominal health exam that could well be offered right at the test center. You might check with them beforehand, lest you show up only to be sent off the pitch once more for that little detail. If HZ is playing by the rules and your overseas motorcycle endorsement is current, you'll not need to demonstrate your riding ability.
Did you download the gazillion questions and start memorizing?
good luck!
All right, a quick update.
After kissing goodbye to my car driving licence at the main traffic bureau, back to the local traffic bureau to apply for a new licence.
Health check VERY nominal, they gave me a book of questions and my exam date is... END OF JUNE!!!! I expected a couple of weeks of illegal driving and now I'm facing at over two months...
My fixer is working on this "small" issue.
I didn't download anything yet, but they kindly gave me for free a book of about 250 pages with 6 questions per page average... I'm already starting to regret all this effort as on the motorbike side, news so far are no good.
As it seems the JH600 can't be registered in Zhejiang, even on the name of a Chinese national. I'm not settling for a 250cc so maybe all this will be for nothing but a piece of paper.
On a positive note they gave me the application for C1D driving licence, so if will loose my job I can move to countryside and sell fruits on my moto-tricycle.
Dear Marco,Quote:
Originally Posted by marcomagica
Don't give up too easily! If HZ is anything like Shanghai, they book up the number of tests they can administer in a given day. But not everyone needs the allotted 30 minutes (or whatever) for the exam, and there are also no-shows, so there is almost always a chance to slip in ahead of your scheduled date. If you've got a free morning, consider just showing up with your paperwork and asking if there's a spare spot. End of June? Like later than 22 June? How about showing up on the June date, but in April instead, apologize profusely for misreading the date, and ask if they can squeeze you in. I've taken the test twice here, and on one of those dates I was a couple of weeks earlier than my scheduled date.
Perhaps HZ will show a little flexibility....
Good luck.
It is a complete pain in the ass to transfer license from C1 to C1D or C1E. My situation:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lao Jia Hou
I came to china and used FESCO to help me get a license - what a waste of $100 USD; Basically they just held my hand to register for the written exam and take my foreign driving license and translate it to chinese and then walk me to hospital for medical "check"....
My foreign license already has MOTORCYCLE endorsement but the idiots at fesco fail to notice that when they translate my license to chinese.....
I take (and pass) the exam on my own (not easy, must study) and get my China driving license.
I receive C1 license. WTF? no motorcyle qualficiation? I ask why? Fesco screw up. How to fix? pay $100 again -- plus...
1. must SUSPEND / CANCEL my current C1 license
2. must Re-Register for written exam
3. must re-take and pass written exam
4. must then wait to get new license with C1D or C1E
complete bureaucratic bullshit. Welcome to China....
I know many in similar situation using these "helpful" company like FESCO, or SUNNY car service companies to get license but those guys are incompetent and do not get you what you ask for despite paying big money. and just driving motoche using C1 license and hope "wo ting bu dong" will work.... you decide.
Dear Papadad,
There is a ray of light in your situation: Because of the overseas motorcycle endorsement, you need not take the mandatory riding course, which is a total waste of time and money, or take a riding test, which is a total joke but also a waste of time. Be thankful it's ONLY a bureaucratic thing. Shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks, and the cost is also minimal -- assuming you tell the FESCO boys to go flip themselves.
By the way, I just noticed this is your first post. Welcome to the forum, and keep us posted about your progress! You'll be on the road in no time.
cheers
What a massive bummer. Welcome to china indeed...
I'm now legal already ...just relaying how much fun it was (not) to do the C1 to C1D/E transfer. What a hassle. There have got to be some fixers somewhere that can make it go faster and easier for the next guy.Quote:
Originally Posted by euphonius
http://www.mdmcbeijing.com
Papadad,Quote:
Originally Posted by papadad
Fixers are rarely there to help. Their job is to make you feel helpless and take your money. Do it yourself, and you'll feel a lot more accomplished.
At best, if you don't know Chinese, you'll need a girlfriend to help with translation. (Girlfriends are also good for protecting you from fixers.)
cheers
This is good information, because I recently replaced my C1 license after it was lost a year ago. The C1 license is now valid for Shanghai jurisdiction, which is awesome. However, I'm going home for the summer (in Canada) to do a motorcycle endorsement over there, and later transfer it to a C1E license in China.
Good to know it's at least possible to do this, even if there are bureaucratic hassles involved.
Dear Steve,
Look at the earlier posts in this thread. It is SOOOO much easier to transfer an existing, valid overseas motorcycle endorsement into a Chinese C1E license than to do it all from scratch. Not that it can't be done here; plenty have. But the system for transfer exists so why not use it!
cheers
Makes sense, but actually I haven't gotten my motorcycle drivers license from overseas yet. All I've got are car licenses from back home in Canada and now here in Shanghai
I learned how to ride a motorcycle here in China for fun, now it's time to go back home, learn some safety skills, and get a legal license
Ladies and Gentleman....
I've just passed my exam in the morning, as it seems today I can fetch the new C1D driving licence!
All I need to know is how to register a JH600 successfully in Zhejiang without having to pay premium price for a plate....
Cheers!
Congrats Marco!
Premium for plates in Zhejiang? Wow. How much?
Dear Marco,
Where in ZJ are you? Depending on the jurisdiction, you could pay very little for your registration, or be forbidding altogether to register. Hope you are in a relatively bike-friendly place. Once you are plated, give us a ring or PM. We JH600 owners in Shanghai are always looking for riding partners!
cheers
I'n in the bike hell of Hangzhou, but I'm seeking to register it in a nearby city, possibly Fuyang or Xiaosan.
Strangely enough they say the don't register anything over 200cc, but isn't the JH600 passed the road safety tests and should be legal for registering all over China??? I know... that's the theory, right?
Unfortunately, from preliminary inquiry, it's not registrable over here. I just don't want to waste too much in plates, as I've read in SH it is real expensive.
I'm told lots of Shanghai riders are getting their bikes plated in Anji. Not sure what's special about Anji, but if Hangzhou is giving the cold shoulder it might be worth an inquiry. Your JH600 will be illegal there in HZ regardless of what plate it carries...
Surely no need to opt for a platinum-plated Shanghai plate. Someone has calculated that a Shanghai motorcycle plate is worth more than its weight in gold. Fkuc that sheet.
cheers
Euphonius, no euphemisms allowed. 'Fuck that shit' or nothing please. This is a motorcycle forum, not a Girl Guide convention. Hmmm, they swear and curse openly too if any of the GG's I knew were examples.Quote:
Originally Posted by euphonius
You're just sore because I have more posts than you.
Fuck that shit!
No, I just wanted an excuse to use euphonius and euphemism in the same sentence!
I never look at those numbers! Well not since 69 and 666.
I realize I won't be able to ride in Hangzhou city, actually I wanted to ride around hangzhou, but I would prefer a Fuyang or XiaoShan plates, which would allow me to still ride around should they decide to extend the motorcicle ban to cities nearby hangzhou.
I guess I'll have to settle for a YBR 250 and save some quai, however it really sucks because the JH600 is my moto of choice.
Anyone has some contacts in Jialing that could clarify (help) to register the JH600 in Fuyang?