Shanghai， on the road!

[Cyanconker]

Hello folks!

My Name is Ruben, and I am pretty new to Shanghai. But I am eager to buy a motorcycle in the next weeks.
I crawled through a lot of topics, but I couldn't find my issue here, so here I go ;)

I will stay here for one year, and want to experience as much I can in this short time here. Therefore get myself a bike and explore the city and the outskirts on my own.
I already registered for the license transcription (test is in end of May) and everything works fine so far.

Until I saw what a license Plate fur 滬/A costs. I just want to have a <250cc moto, preferably not bigger than 200cc.

I was driving a 150cc Moto in Taiwan for 2 years, which was pretty smooth in terms of licensing, Insurance etc. But it seems it isn't that easy here in China.

Or is it THAT kind of hassle only for bigger machines, like this one?

http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...00-in-Shanghai

I live at TongJi Campus, so not really in the inner circle. I wouldnt even care that much if I cant go in the city, its just mainly about going on the countryside etc. So would maybe a Hu—B, C, D... ( I dont know how many letters there are for license plates ;)) be sufficient? And better for a students moneybag? ;)

So what would you suggest me to do? I already asked some locals with "bigger" 125 naked-style motorcycles where they got them. Or are those license plates are also just fakes?
I want to stay on the legal way, thats for sure ( I don't even DARE to think what will happen should I , knock on wood, get involved in an accident.)

So I would be glad if you guys could help me :)


Thanks a lot,

Ruben

BTW this was my Bike in Taiwan, miss this little beast a lot :)IPOD 001.jpg

[bikerdoc]

Well getting a bike maybe not that difficult. Plenty-a-sellers 'round who all too happy to sell you a bike and take your cash. They'll tell you anything you want to hear, in order to get your cash in the pocket and on occasion because what you ask, and what they interpret you asking are two different things, and then what they say in reply and what you think they said are also often two different things only remotely connected. Buying a bike may not be difficult for you but, the clincher might be that if you are on a student X visa, you may not be able to buy a bike and have it in your name, your Chinese name or otherwise. There are some pretty complicated rules, that some foreigners may not ever be aware off, as someone else usually (a local) deals with it. We can't just live where we want, we can't just stay in any hotel we want, we can't just rent in any location we want, and sometimes we can't just buy what we want. The simple things are complicated and the things that should be complicated are simple. Just think opposites. We think opposite to the way "they" think, and vice versa, and so it goes.
Interesting to read you are already booked in to do your theory exam for your D/L conversion 'cause once upon a time, that too would not have been possible if you had anything less than a work permit/alien residence permit etc. Even today, the national law might be more inclusive as might be what is applied in your case, TIC (this is China) but every little domain has it's own form of government (power broker). Just because it's national law don't make it so down in QianDaoSu, or up in FatFarQu. Not that has much to do with you and your situation though. It does mean that there can many sides and takes to how something can be done or acheived.

As I'm no longer a resident of Shanghai (and thank confuscious and his mates for that blessing!), I can't say what your chances are of getting a bike there as student completely legal in your name (Chinese name or otherwise).Just a word of caution. There are agents and then there are agent wannabes. Agents who can get you a bike and look after all the legalities e.g. insurance, and do it above board with an agreement signed between you and them. But, there are the less than scrupulous kind - the wannabes. You'll get taken to the cleaners one way or another with the second mob. Though you still have cover yourself with the first kind too...

Have you thought about a little scooter? You can pick them up from near cheap and well whatever you care to spend really, dependent on brand, capacity and so on?

Where do you intend to store your ride once you got it. Big hint here, bikes, cycles, scoots are stolen at alarming rates, just search here and you will find several posts which show that foreigners are not immune. And don't think for a moment to rely on locks, or the local BaoAn looking after your ride. Most of them as about as useful as tits on a bull, which is a pity really as I luv tits - big, small, round or not - I luv em all (no discrimination here). And not wanting to sound like an arse, but have you thought about a bicycle or even an ebike? I rode both in SH and bloody useful. Careful though they're prone to being nicked too.

[Cyanconker]

Wow, ok haven't thought it will be that kind of a hassle. As I mentioned before, in Taiwan ( Bless this beautiful island!) it was a matter of hours to get things done. By myself, with no agent whatsoever. Seems in Mainland the rules are a whole lot different.

But what will be the difference between register a 125cc Scooter and a 125cc motorcycle anyway? But if everything fails, I would still take the scooter. And E-Bikes are just not what I want. I use my bicycle to travel in the remote area, but as I said, I want to go to the (close) countryside by bike. I dont think an e-bike with its 50km/h max will be of greater help.

I dont intend to spend more than 700 US$ for the package. Thats what i spent on my moto plus insurance in Taiwan.

I live on campus, so there aren't many possibilities for storing it. I guess I have to rely on locks... maybe a whole bunch of them? ;)

So i will have to see what will be the use for my future driving license...

[Webba]

Wow, a thread I can help a bit with!
Ruben, Im also a student at Tongji and been here a few years so I have a little experience about living here even though I also only just found this awesome forum. Im afraid I dont have any good news for you though, on a student budget getting a proper bike legally in Shanghai is near on impossible, there is a massive cultural bias against motorbikes here and Shanghai, very much trying to be the model future city, is very strict on limiting their use in the city. (in truth their policy seems to be to not to issue new bike registrations, let people convert bike rego to cars but not vice versa and wait for bike use to die out completely)

You probably know that Tongji campus is just inside the inner ring road which means technically a 沪C is not allowed to be used from there anywhere into the city. In practice it would probably be fine to use around campus and to get out of the city but the last time I saw a price for 沪C it was 25k and its only going to go up, prolly more like 30k already now. For my own use I estimated about 40k minimum to get a 沪C licensed decent bike here, of any engine size and thats way more than I can afford, or would be willing to pay even if I could atm. (The reason I think C license is kinda the bare minimum is because if you get one from another city basically you cant buy fuel here.)

The difference between 125cc Scooters and 125cc Motorbikes is not obvious but as far as I can work out it is simply that you can more easily pretend the scooter is less than 50cc which is the max engine capacity for not registering it as a motorcycle and paying the ridiculous plate price. Youll never get a 125cc motorcycle you can pretend doesnt need to be registered. AFAIK all those big engine scooters are illegal but they are popular because they can mix with the legal e scooters and smaller capacity scooters. You'll even see blinged out expensivish looking ones, but they will always be scooters. The worst bikes you see on Shanghai roads are those taxi guys and their plates are either from way back when the price was low, or fake. Honestly not sure how a 49cc scooter will do you for touring the countryside but it will get you around town well enough.

By the by you seriously do not want to get an illegal bike here, scooter or otherwise. They are really popular around uni especially with students from central asia or africa and they are all generally unregistered and unlicensed but its really risky. If you ask around a bit youll probably hear about the Kazakhstan student who was riding down Zhang Wu Road way too fast at night and hit and killed a local girl. He hid from the police for a bit then they found him and he just vanished. I dont know what happened to him. Probably a period of incarceration followed by deportation but who knows. You really, really do not want to risk something like that, on any level.

Oh yeah, a word about bike theft. With anything better than a really crappy looking bicycle unless you plan to keep it inside your room expect to have it take a walk by itself sooner or later. Ive had two bicycles stolen here, both of which I got second hand and intentionally never cleaned so they looked as rubbish as possible. Scooters and bikes can be stolen from on campus as well, the main campus might be a bit more secure but if you are in the Zhang Wu Road dorms then be really careful, the security guards there are worse than useless and didnt even bother to make lame excuses when my mates scooter was stolen.

Sorry if this is all a bit depressing. Like you I assumed that China, developing economy, strong industry etc would be a relatively cheap place to get a bike. Almost 5 years later and my dreams of getting into the hobby, travelling around on the cheap or tooling up some old local bikes are still just dreams. This just isnt the right place for it, sadly. On the upside, public transport is pretty good and cheap and bicycles are good for your health. (and cheap to replace) Its probably a real shock for you coming from Taiwan first because contrary to expectations its completely and utterly different from here. My roommate is from Taiwan and he finds all the crazy bs here just as maddening as I do. Mainland China is... Unique and while it does have its charms dont expect it to make sense anytime soon!

[Cyanconker]

Hi Webba, Thank you for your reply ;)

Yes, I more or less gave up the dream of crusing along the Jangze, experience the nature by Motorbike. I just can't or want to afford 40k, not even be able to drive in the city.
But I will still do my DL, who knows what will be in 6 years ;) Do you know if all the big cities are against motorbikes like Shanghai? Or is e.g. ChengDu better?

Yeah, I live on the Campus in Dorm Nr.2, so I hope my bike wont be stolen ;) Even though it has a fancy basket at the front haha

Was nice to read your text, now I think I know more about the rules here...