Greetings from Beijing!

[Kette]

@Kette:

Sure, will keep you informed when i got something new. Because of all the registering issues i'll probably won't buy but keep looking for rentals. Just PM me your wechat/weixin.
I'm at Tsinghua. You are also kindly invited to tag along if you want, already got 2 friends (both also german) on board as well (making buying even more difficult). We'll probably go for 2-3 weeks in Yunnan/Sichuan in february. Aren't quiet sure about the dates yet since we are not all certain about when we are requiered to be back to university for reregistering for next semester.
If everything goes well i'll probably go riding in july again :D

Thanks for the invitation, sounds good. Unfortunately, I won't have time to join you in Jan/Feb, but maybe in July.

How long did it take for you between taking the test and signing up for it? Haven't scheduled mine yet but hope to get everything done within this year.
Where did you do the medical exam? Gonna try tomorrow with the hospital on campus, but since it's not on the offical list it would be good to know one in the neighborhood which definitly does it.

I signed up for the test on Nov 22nd. Then they told me I can do the test on Dec 2nd.
I had my medical examination at a hospital in Chaoyang. It was done in less than 5 min.
I was told that it is impossible to sign up for the test without the "registration of temporary residence" stamped by the local police station. My university usually doesn't hand this form out to students who live on campus; so I had to ask for it, get it stamped by the university and then by the local police station.

P.S.: Do you want my study material to prepare for the test? I don't need it anymore.

[AndyCCAA]

I did the health examination today and got my "registration form of temporary residence" stamped today.
So just some quick information for whoever may find this thread in the future:

The Hospitals on Campus of neither Tsinghua nor Beijing Daxue do the health examination. We went to Beijing Haidian Hospital instead. It's right at the Subwaystation Haidianhuangzhuang. You enter, go to the "examination area" to the right, first door is registration for the examination (10 kuai). If you don't have a form you'll get one there. If you fill it in beforehand make sure to do it in black ink. We didn't know and use blue... Since neither me nor my friend speaks good mandarin (and understand even less) it took us some time to figure out what was wrong - first we thought she said we forgot to fill in something / filled something in wrong because she kept pointing on our forms :D
The examination itself is just a simple eye test, you look at some Es over a mirror and got to say the direction they point. Seemed like she didn't care about our answers anyway though ;)

The Police Station responsible for you when you live on Campus of Tsinghua Daxue will be Zhongguancuan Police Station - went to the wrong one first but got very kindly directions to the right one.

By the way, this is the route we planned so far:
goo.gl/TVk0If
Still pretty rough, especially the part from chengdu back to the south. But if you got any hints about must-do-places or roads to ride (or better not ride) i'm eager to hear. Also im still unsure if the route is fit for january temperature-wise - cold temperatures are ok, but i'd rather not get into icy conditions.

[AndyCCAA]

Quick update:
Got my drivers license by now :)

General Information for people who want to get their license in Beijing:
Contrary to some guides on the web you do not need to fill out any "application form". You just show the Health Examination, your foreign license & translation & your passport and you'll get a date for the test ~10 days later.
On Test day you actually get 2 tries ride away (lucky me, got 89 on first try :D). After second failed try you get a new test date.

Our plans changed slightly due to lack of time, we'll make a roundtrip with start and finish in kunming. So no Lugu Lake, Emeishan or Chengdu but on the other hand more southern yunnan.

[euphonius]

Quick update:
Got my drivers license by now :)

General Information for people who want to get their license in Beijing:
Contrary to some guides on the web you do not need to fill out any "application form". You just show the Health Examination, your foreign license & translation & your passport and you'll get a date for the test ~10 days later.
On Test day you actually get 2 tries ride away (lucky me, got 89 on first try :D). After second failed try you get a new test date.

Our plans changed slightly due to lack of time, we'll make a roundtrip with start and finish in kunming. So no Lugu Lake, Emeishan or Chengdu but on the other hand more southern yunnan.

Did you get the C1E (permits you to drive cars and motorcycles) or C1D (cars, motorcycles and three-wheelers)?

[AndyCCAA]

C1D (which includes C1E). My friend only got C1E though - he has the same german license class as me but is still in probation time. Didn't hazzle with arguing since C1E is enough for our plans.

[euphonius]

Congratulations. Another mystery to puzzle -- why one guy gets a C1E and the other a C1D. Did you have to go through the whole ritual of them telling you that it's not safe to ride motorcycles, so please just get a C1 car license? Or are they starting to understand that some people would actually WANT to ride a motorbike?

Yunnan sounds excellent!

[AndyCCAA]

Actually no, it went really smooth.

The Problem with my friend was, my german license just states that i have the car&motorcycle license, but on his there is an remark that he is not allowed to ride more than 34hp until next year (german legizlation, young drivers are limited to 34hp for 2 years). I got no clue what that has to do with being allowed to drive 3-wheelers. But we didn't try to argue because we feared they may not give him C1E at all if we explain the remarks on his license :D