How to get a Chinese Motorcycle License

**prince666** · 07-10-2014, 12:58 AM

Originally Posted by ZMC888

Hinrich, there is a German guy in Germany that has or had a Chinese registered YBR250 and a 125 that he and his friend rode across last summer, PM me for details. He's selling or has sold the bikes for a reasonable price I think, about 1500 Euros for the YBR250, and less for the 125 if he still has them for sale. If it's possible to buy them this way at least you'd be avoiding some legal problems so could be returning a legal registered and insured bike to China. You of course as the rider would not be legal, but you could claim ignorance, and having vehicle registration a European license and an International Driving license they could take pity on you and not give you too much hassle. Coming in on a German plated bike would be so expensive and annoying I suggest you rethink the plan. Thailand is great, but India is a life changing riding destination if you haven't ridden there already.

Good points made and he could get away
With out having a Chinese DL but not advisable
But he could !!!
Now India yes sound interesting !!
Shit I just remembered I don't like CURRYS !!
Hehehe

**mikem** · 07-15-2014, 08:50 AM

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**manji01** · 08-25-2014, 08:43 AM

Hi guys, looking to get my Chinese Licence C1E. Currently in Shanghai but moving to Beijing in a months time, however my current visa is only valid until 31st December of this year.

I have a full car licence from back home (NZ) however my motorcycle licence is still a restricted one. I would like to be able to transfer my licence to the Chinese licence and be able to drive both. Does anyone else have experience with this and were you able to still get the C1E?

Worst case scenario if I have to start from scratch for the motorcycle licence is it possible to skip the training and just do the tests since I already know how to ride?

Since I only have a month left here in Shanghai I guess it would make since to do everything in Beijing.

Thanks in advance,

**prince666** · 08-25-2014, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by manji01

Hi guys, looking to get my Chinese Licence C1E. Currently in Shanghai but moving to Beijing in a months time, however my current visa is only valid until 31st December of this year.

I have a full car licence from back home (NZ) however my motorcycle licence is still a restricted one. I would like to be able to transfer my licence to the Chinese licence and be able to drive both. Does anyone else have experience with this and were you able to still get the C1E?

Worst case scenario if I have to start from scratch for the motorcycle licence is it possible to skip the training and just do the tests since I already know how to ride?

Since I only have a month left here in Shanghai I guess it would make since to do everything in Beijing.

Thanks in advance,

I think you will find you need at least 6 months left on your visa in Beijing ?? so IMO you are out of luck or should I say TIME ...

It all comes down to the translation of you country DL ?? in my case I had no bike license in the UK but got one here .. just be nice to the person at the office who is doing your translation and with a bit of luck the person will include a full bike category in the translation for you???, don't move pass this point until you have what you need , it starts and stop here so to speak , to get a C1E ......

well good luck

P.S.

just had a read off "Milkem" post which is 2 post up the page ??
who took his Chinese DL in Beijing ?? read it .?
looks like you don't need 6 months left on your Visa.. and if what he says about the translation is right then just get the person who does it to include "Full Bike category"

**manji01** · 08-26-2014, 06:43 AM

Originally Posted by prince666

P.S.

just had a read off "Milkem" post which is 2 post up the page ??
who took his Chinese DL in Beijing ?? read it .?
looks like you don't need 6 months left on your Visa.. and if what he says about the translation is right then just get the person who does it to include "Full Bike category"

In peoples experience how much attention is payed to the original DL? There is a big fat "RESTRICTED" written in the top left corner of my NZ DL if the translation doesn't mention this will it likely raise suspicion? :)

**prince666** · 08-26-2014, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by manji01

In peoples experience how much attention is payed to the original DL? There is a big fat "RESTRICTED" written in the top left corner of my NZ DL if the translation doesn't mention this will it likely raise suspicion? :)

In my experience the police did't want to look at my UK DL which has a BIG FAT NO BIKE on it and should only be intrested in the "translation letter". So as i said before you start or stop with what is translated . so make sure the "translation letter" has BIG FAT BIKE on it ok

**jdw006** · 08-28-2014, 10:53 AM

Well I finally took the plunge into (attempting) to get my license. Here is what happened so far:

After my girlfriend calling the local (Hebei, Tangshan) office repeatedly and getting busy signals I figured we should just go and see what we could find out. After giving them my passport and American DL the woman asked for my gongzuozhengming (basically a paper from my employer saying I do indeed work there, and of course it must be an original with that special little stamp/chop at the bottom). I have read through every reply in this thread (and many others) on this subject and have NEVER seen that being required, but TIC. After politely arguing with her for a while we finally gave up. [Later we went to the Exit & Entry Bureau where my work permit was recently issued and the woman we talked to there immediately said that we don't need that for a license and that my work permit in and of itself is proof of gongzuozhengming in Chinese but it turned out her English was pretty good and we talked about it for a minute or two and she indirectly apologized and explained TIC without actually saying it.]

Ok other than that she was mildly helpful and told us what else we need. (1) License translated into Chinese from some local government place (100 RMB and it did have to be from there, no forms were provided at the license office). (2) two small photos of whatever size, don't feel like scrolling up to see the size. (3) Temporary Residence Permit (here it's different from Beijing and is called Accommodation Registration Form For Foreign Nationals). I think that was it.

Ok went back today with everything except the gongzuozhengming as my company is located a good ways out of the city and whoever has the magic red stamper wasn't there today. Went upstairs to the little medical check place. Here you must do it at their office. There were three lines to get started and it only costed 15 RMB. I made SURE to explain that the license translated to C1D. The first station was thumb print, index finger, then mugshot. Next you looked into the microscope looking thing and pointed which way the tiny little C was facing inside of a circle. After that was the colorblindness test. Each of those was only two passes through. After that it was really a joke but there were 2-3 more stations. [We got to the end and as I suspected the girl entered an old visa number as passport number. I saw her pointing at the visa number and said budui as my girlfriend was saying passport number in English, then said "san--ling--wu . . ." (the start of my passport number) and the girl goes ahhhh ok ok. Clearly nobody listens to anything besides the first syllable out of this waiguoren's mouth because the visa number did start with 3, but none of the other numbers matched.] Next we took that form to another place, paid 2 RMB for something I don't know, and then they took this form and printed out a different one, then gave us both [we did get them to amend the passport number error on their copy]. Next we went back downstairs to the window we went to yesterday, and somebody else directed us somewhere. When we got to the line and started to fill in the forms my girlfriend noticed that the second form we got had C1 for license type. Lovely.

Went back to the window where we talked to the woman yesterday, but it turns out she took vacation today as well as tomorrow AND the internet is not working on that computer today and they can't scan my American license. Yeah, right. My girlfriend argued and argued that I don't need this gongzuozhengming form that they insist I need to no avail. Well, maybe, the supervisor said she would call the main office in Shijiazhuang. Sorry this wasn't so helpful and very poorly written, but I feel better venting after this rant. I'll update more in a couple weeks hopefully. Unfortunately I work outside of the city 10 days on/4 days off, so I won't even be able to try to schedule an exam until Sept 11/12 and then take it a couple weeks after that.

Has anybody else been asked for this gongzuozhengming proof of employment thing? Proof of university if you're on a student visa? I know there isn't much information on this process from Hebei Province, but either they are ridiculously strict here or this is a classic case of TIC or both.

**mikem** · 08-29-2014, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by prince666

just had a read off "Milkem" post which is 2 post up the page ??
who took his Chinese DL in Beijing ?? read it .?
looks like you don't need 6 months left on your Visa.. and if what he says about the translation is right then just get the person who does it to include "Full Bike category"

I have no idea where or how you've inferred this from what I wrote

As has been said on this thread a number of times, your translation is cross referenced with the information on your home country driving license by the Chinese authorities upon submitting your application for the theory test. This is done using a machine which has extensive records of international license keys, ie. what each of the letters and numbers on different countries' licenses mean. Take that for what you will. Nowhere in my rather long write-up did or would I suggest that bullshitting them is a good idea or an idea that would work.

Also, on the very first bullet point of my write-up it says you need 90 days remaining on your visa

**prince666** · 08-29-2014, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by mikem

I have no idea where or how you've inferred this from what I wrote

As has been said on this thread a number of times, your translation is cross referenced with the information on your home country driving license by the Chinese authorities upon submitting your application for the theory test. This is done using a machine which has extensive records of international license keys, ie. what each of the letters and numbers on different countries' licenses mean. Take that for what you will. Nowhere in my rather long write-up did or would I suggest that bullshitting them is a good idea or an idea that would work.

Also, on the very first bullet point of my write-up it says you need 90 days remaining on your visa

Sorry in school 90 days was 3 months not 6 months ???? (Harbin needs only 3 months) (Yantai needed 6 months).The point is some provinces you need 3 months some you need 6 months left on your visa was not sure what Beijing ask for? hope you understand now.
In your case the traffic police checked you Country DL with the translation you had done . But in "MY" case this was not done , so how did i get a CIE and not having a bike category on my UK DL ?
I tell you by bullshitting the lady in the office who done the translation letter
Sorry if i implied in my post that you suggested that people should bullshit Chinese official which i think i didn't .
But "I" am saying to get things sorted out here in China IMO you do need to very much bullshit every day of your life to get things done .
I hope this clears up a few misunderstand you may and other people could have with my post
It is a common consensus from most members on MCM that what applies in one province or city does not also applies in other province or cities TIC ?? China is a logic free zone

Have a good weekend

Nuff said

**jdw006** · 09-01-2014, 08:41 AM

Minor update on mine. My girlfriend left her phone number to get an update on this gongzuozhengming thing. Bad news, they won't issue a motorcycle license to me because I live inside the city. Claim to not have the exam. Many, if not most, roads here have a no motorcycles 7:00-21:00, but they are legal 24/7 on some and every road 21:00-7:00. TIC. And they claim I still need this gongzuozhengming thing.