How to get a Chinese Motorcycle License

**lightend** · 06-06-2013, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by TB-Racing

Also, foreigners will not need a police permit to travel in China in their own vehicles.
.

Didnt know we needed one now. I have never sort permission to travel in china in 5 years. haha oh well.

**ywaik** · 06-06-2013, 11:31 PM

Originally Posted by euphonius

OK, my friend who showed me the nicely bound 500 rmb drivers license question bank told me his assistant found it on Taobao using the search phrase 英文交规考试题库2013. Sure enough, this kicks up links (in Chinese) for this book. Looks like this was produced by a visa agent in Shanghai.

With any luck, this will indeed be a standard national question bank. Whether cities across China are required to offer the drivers license test in English remains to be seen.

Good luck!
euphonius

Thanks for the help!

**XiaoYin** · 06-18-2013, 03:58 AM

Originally Posted by Golden boy

Does anybody have experience with doing a motorcycle license in Shanghai from Scratch?
It seems that I would have to do driving lessons and theory lessons. I would do that if that is what it takes.
But I cannot find a driving school that can provide lessons in english and my chinese is not good enough to survive in a classroom.

Hi everyone,

I am just in the process of getting my license. I don't have a motorbike license from a different country (just the car license, which I didn't convert (yet)), so I need to do the whole thing.

First the bad news: I don't know of any classes or tests in english or other foreign languages. In my driving school (Shanghai Junti Qiche Jiashi Peixun in Hongkou/Guangzhong Lu), I was told that the exams for the car license are available in english, but not for the motorbike license. :-(

The good news: don't worry about the theory lessons. You need to sit in the room for either one full day or two half days and it doesn't really matter if you understand the teacher. Mine regularly switched into Shanghainese, so I didn't have the chance to get an idea about the topic. But since you get the book in the morning before class starts, you can just sit in the room and start studying. ;-)

I think the questions aren't extremely difficult (apart from the policeman pictures, but luckily I didn't get any of these in any of my attempts of passing the exam), but you'll have to learn some new vocabulary if your traffic Chinese is as insufficient as mine was. Especially the "correct/wrong" questions were difficult for me, because these require you to actually understand the question, while for most of the multiple-choice ones, it's okay to just 差不多 understand them.

Last weekend, I had my first "driving lesson". I haven't been warned about them before, and didn't really know what to expect. So I was quite amused when I saw the ancient gems they called motorbikes. These tiny bikes don't have any instruments or signals (no lights, no tachometer, no direction indicators, I think not even a horn!

), but only one big switch which is used to turn them on or off. We all took a bike and pushed them towards the practising area. The instructor then showed us one of the bikes and explained how to put them on and off the stand, how to kick-start it and how to start driving. After that, he started the engines of all the bikes and sent us off to drive in circles. Since we were more people than bikes, he would occasionally wave at one of us to stop and give the bike to someone else.

Driving these antiques was weird. The fact that the gears are in a different order than what I'm used to wasn't a problem - we weren't shifting gears anyway - but they felt like Diesel cars... pushing forward the whole time. So after a while I figured that he actually wanted us to keep standing on the brake while "driving".

After everyone has had some time to drive in circles, the instructor showed us what we need to do for the (first of two) exam: drive a very slow slalom through five posts without going over some lines on both sides of the posts, turn around and do the same again in the other direction. That's it. That's the whole exam and people are expected to come to three lessons for practising it. Since the bikes are really tiny and it's not easy to kill the engine, this exercise is quite simple, but for people who never rode a motorbike before it might still be a bit of a challenge - especially because the instructor didn't help.

I was a bit annoyed by the guy because of the views he had expressed at the beginning of the lesson, such as "girls shouln't ride motorbikes. You better stick to scooters, because motorbikes are too complicated" or "girls and old people should drive carefully". That's why I felt quite satisfied when he came to me after I've finished my slalom practise and said "you're good, can you pass the test?" to which I answered "sure, no problem". And then he said "okay, you don't need to come back for practise then. Just come for the exam".

So these have been my experiences so far with driving lessons in China. Quite fun, but not at all related to actual riding. I'm gonna take a break now for summer, but will continue with my quest after I'm back. So there might be a follow-up post, if you're interested.

Question for you guys: what's the last theoretic exam about? Does anyone know? Because that's the only thing I'm still a bit nervous about - it's taken me quite a couple of tries to pass the first one.

Thanks for reading and have a safe ride! ;-)
Xiaoyin

ancient_bike.jpg

**euphonius** · 06-18-2013, 05:34 AM

Dear Xiaoyin,

Awesome first post, and welcome to MCM! Looks like you've got the road exam well in hand. As for the theoretical, several members swear by an app called Driving in China that runs on Android and iOS and comprises the entire updated (2013) question bank in English, or perhaps bilingual. This includes the newfangled "situational" questions. I just saw it in the iTunes App Store for $1.99.

Good luck!
euphonius

**prince666** · 06-19-2013, 01:43 AM

[QUOTE=euphonius;58539]Dear Xiaoyin,

Awesome first post, and welcome to MCM! Looks like you've got the road exam well in hand. As for the theoretical, several members swear by an app called Driving in China that runs on Android and iOS and comprises the entire updated (2013) question bank in English, or perhaps bilingual. This includes the newfangled "situational" questions. I just saw it in the iTunes App Store for $1.99.

Hi all

The app" Driving in China " that euphonius is talking about is in Trilingual 1. English 2. Chinese.and 3 . German very good app..

**XiaoYin** · 06-19-2013, 09:56 AM

Thank you :-)

I heard about the app before, but since I knew the test was going to be in chinese, I didn't see much use in learning the questions in english ... or german. I used the book that I got from the driving school and practised on these two websites: http://e.jsyks.com/, http://mnks.jxedt.com/motor-index.asp (umm... posting URLs is okay here, right?)

My question was more directed towards the content of the second theoretic exam as opposed to the first one. But I think I've found it now. This website offers a "part 1" and "part 3/4", so I assume that "part 1" is the test you have to take right at the beginning, and "part 3/4" is for the last exam that you have to take after finishing the two driving exams.

I'm doing a lot of guessing and assuming here, so if anyone knows more about it, please share. Otherwise I'll just start to look into the "part 3/4" questions on the above mentioned website and hope it won't be wasted time. ;-)

Cheers!
Xiaoyin

**euphonius** · 06-19-2013, 10:21 AM

Dear Xiaoyin,

The theoretical test in Shanghai will be administered in English if that's what you want. Prior to 2013, it was available in several other languages too (Japanese, German, French, Spanish), but at the turn of the year when they introduced the new questions there was a period of several months when the ONLY tests available were in Chinese. Several MCM members have recently taken the NEW exam in Shanghai in English, and it's these members who are saying the best way to prepare is with the smartphone app.

Needless to say, if you take it in Chinese and pass, you'll have special bragging rights!

No need to do so much guessing and assuming. Ask specific questions of the members who recently took the exams in English, and you'll get specific answers.

Good luck!

**jaywidz** · 07-03-2013, 07:05 AM

Just passed my test today. Beijng is using the new 2013 English question bank now. The "Driving in China" app is a great help but have to be careful on the translation. The translation on the app is slightly different from the translation on the actual question. Cheers!

**braillce** · 07-03-2013, 07:45 AM

Hey congrats on ur license man!

What brings me here is I lost mine this morning, along with my scooter's papers... Shame.

Anyone knows where to go to make new ones?

For the license, 1330 Hami rd, or to the traffic center where I was delivered the license?

For the plate & scooter's docs, I suppose the shop owner I bought it from can help?

**euphonius** · 07-03-2013, 02:16 PM

Originally Posted by jaywidz

Just passed my test today. Beijng is using the new 2013 English question bank now. The "Driving in China" app is a great help but have to be careful on the translation. The translation on the app is slightly different from the translation on the actual question. Cheers!

Welcome to MCM and excellent first post!! Congratulations on the new license. Did you get the C1D or C1E? Any problems with the process?

How about introducing yourself in the Welcome to MCM forum? What do you ride?

cheers
euphonius