A friend (who will remain anonymous) had a bad experience recently ...

Story:

He came to China on a 1 year multiple-entry tourist visa with a maximum of each stay of 60 days. I told him to get a license, asap. When he tried, he was shot down because he needed a 90 day stay. During one exit, he had a new tourist visa issued with the 90 day stay, BUT felt that since he was only staying another few months, and it takes a month to get the license, he didn't bother.

A few days before he was due to leave China ... bang ... stopped in a road block ... blew into the handheld breathalyzer, and it registered 0.02. Zero tolerance in Beijing - any reading means loss of license, etc, etc, etc. The start of a bad situation.

Asked for his license. He didn't have one. This created BIG trouble.

Vehicle confiscated and taken to impound lot & he's driven to the police station. The police wanted to hold him for 15 days detention, starting then and there. His Chinese wife was with him. She is a senior executive with a Fortune 500 company. She pleaded that her husband was leaving China in a couple of days, that he never drives but did this one time because she was much more inebriated, he has a foreign license, he is also a senior executive, he tried to get a license but was caught up in "the rules", and so on. She helped negotiate the immediacy into a "let's wait until the boss arrives tomorrow, and he can decide." The police let them go home, as long as they returned without delay.

Next day, or so, new boss at the police station - he is adamant that my friend has to go get his license, immediately, even a temporary DL, so that they can revoke it and incarcerate him ... but now the time is up to perhaps 40 days of jail if he can't get a Temp DL, primarily because that is about how long it will take him to get a regular Chinese DL. There is also going to be a huge fine, because of no DL, a criminal record, and deportation.

Hours later, more negotiation, and a decision to speak with another boss in a couple of days. Things were looking very bad.

A couple of days later, more serious decisions to incarcerate, etc ... finally, through a bit of magic ... the entire matter is dropped. The magic did not involve any exchange of funds. I can't say any more.

According to my friend, here is a quick synopsis of what happened ...

1) The zero tolerance & him registering on the hand-held drew attention to him;
2) The lack of a driving license was the BIG issue;
3) The police wanted to hold him until he had a valid DL so that they could immediately take it away, give him a criminal record, and deport him. There was also a big risk that his wife, in whose name the vehicle was registered, would also be subjected to fines & loss of license for permitting him to drive, knowing he was unlicensed.

Several days of stressful agony and a large fee to retrieve the vehicle says two things:

1) Don't drive after ANY consumption of alcohol in Beijing - a 0.02 in many countries would, at most, result in a roadside suspension. Beijing has zero tolerance. Zero means zero.
2) Do NOT drive without a driving license - that was the big issue in this case.

Also, if his Chinese wife was not there, he'd definitely be in jail, awaiting deportation.

By the way, each of these people are very soft-spoken who would never consider losing their temper or inflaming the situation.