Quote Originally Posted by French_Rider View Post
OK, after browsing the web I am seeing different ways through the maze but each with some obstacles

1) if it's possible, paying an agency that could help me show an address in HK and get me a real HK DL / transfer my mainland DL into a HK one. Then what?
a) also using this agency to stretch the law again to help me get an HK-issued IDD through the HK DL. According to the HK Transport Department website, both HK DL and HK IDD require to have HK I.D. As a consequence, if an agency is able to give me the former, it should also be able to give me the latter, no?
b) there is an agreement between France and HK to transfer DL, so ideally I could transfer the HK to a French one, and then from the French one get an IDD. BUT: I need to prove to the Traffic Bureau in France that I was resident in HK, and that proof needs to come from the French consulate, so: impossible.

2) apparently France and China are negotiating to step up and allow transfer of driving license. If that happens, fantastic, I just get the French one and then the IDD. I’ll check updates on that on France side and also on China's (if I can), it may be useful to other French riders…

3) I give up trying to get legal documents and as humanbeing suggests, I get a forged HK-issued IDD in Shenzhen, that I will only show when my genuine Chinese DL is not enough, i.e. in Russia and former soviet states. I guess that in these countries, even if they suspect my IDD to be fake, I could get away by paying a bribe (any feedback on that? and, by the way, how much to get a nice looking forged HK IDD if anyone knows?)

4) I just carry my Chinese driver license with a formal translation in Russian and hope that it'll work in the countries it needs to, i.e. Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. And again, expecting to have to pay some bribe there too...

So, here it is, as much as I'd like to be legal, if it's not possible and “circumventing” the law does not imply dire consequences, what the hell...
ad 1) why so complicated? Just get yourself an IDP from back home in France. They'll give you the bike license, which you have in France legally - that will do.

ad 2) It's the EU and Chine negotiating that thing for years already but every time a European leader receives the visit of a certain person (the DL), all such small things are put on hold by the Chinese.

ad 3) see ad 1)

ad 4) see ad 1)