How to get a Chinese Motorcycle License

**marcomagica** · 03-31-2011, 08:07 AM

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

**euphonius** · 03-31-2011, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by marcomagica

Anyone can confirm the usual drill translation-notarisation-written exam = C1E driving licence is still actual?

Dear Marco,

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.

**marcomagica** · 03-31-2011, 09:10 AM

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

**euphonius** · 04-01-2011, 05:58 AM

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...

**LC8** · 04-01-2011, 11:46 AM

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

**marcomagica** · 04-14-2011, 05:41 AM

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.

**euphonius** · 04-15-2011, 08:55 AM

Originally Posted by marcomagica

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...

Good luck!

**bigmonkey** · 04-16-2011, 05:29 AM

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.

**marcomagica** · 04-16-2011, 05:35 AM

Originally Posted by bigmonkey

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.

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.

**bigmonkey** · 04-16-2011, 05:39 AM

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.