Before coming to China, I heard it was impossible for foreigners to get a Chinese driver’s license 驾驶执照. It certainly makes sense, with all the Chinese characters on the road signs, how is a Lao Wai 老外 to find his way around? But getting a driver’s license in Shanghai was easier than expected. The process is a little chaotic, but it’s manageable and costs just 215 CNY. Requirements are that you own a driver’s license in your home country already and have a valid residence permit 居留许可 for China.

Before going to the traffic police station itself, you need to have your foreign license translated. There are two bureaus they recommend. One somewhere far in the outskirts of the city, one on Nanjing Rd. East. I recommend the one on Nanjing Rd. Call ahead to see if they’re busy. Usually they can do the translation in less than 10 minutes if you go there directly. Translation of my German license cost 60 CNY.

Shanghai Interpreter’s Association 上海市外事翻译工作者协会
Address: Nanjing Rd. East 66 (office 702/4)
上海市南京东路 66 号 702/4 室 (近外滩)
Tel.: 63233608, 63239181
E-Mail: fanyixiehui@vip.citiz.net
http://www.shwsfy.com

After this is sorted out, go to the traffic police station, which is located in Minhang district. They are open Monday through Friday. Try to get their early to avoid the crowds. Take your foreign license, the translation and your passport with you.

Traffic Police Station 警察交通局
Minhang District, Qinchun Rd. 179 (building
闵行区沁春路179号 (8号楼)
Tel: 6498 7070 ext 54280

To save the taxi fare, take Metro line 1 地铁一号线 to Xinzhuang 莘庄 and change to line 5 地铁五号线 here. Get off right at the next stop Chunshen Rd. 春申路. The traffic police is about 200m from the metro station. As soon as you enter their premises, follow the signs to building no. 8. You will first have to sort out some formalities with the officers there. Note that a Chinese name is required to get a Chinese license. Afterwards, you will be sent to building no. 12 to have photos taken (40 CNY) and for a short health check (60 CNY). Unfortunately, you are not allowed to bring your own passport photos It all gets a little chaotic here. If you can’t read Chinese, make sure you bring someone who does or simply ask one of the people there. Don’t let the overly eager fuwuyuan 服务员 intimidate you. Simply just try to look confused and you will get through the checks alright They will measure your height and blood pressure and check your eyes and ears. Afterwards, head back to building no. 8 and hand all the certificates over to the officer there.

You will be given a small pamphlet containing 100 questions. These pamphlets are available in English (pink), traditional Chinese (yellow), Korean (green) and Japanese. The driving test 驾车考试 will contain exactly the same questions, just in a different order. You will have 45 minutes time and you must answer more than 90 of those 100 questions correctly to pass. The test will simply stop when you have reached this score. Whether you take the test the same day or take the pamphlet home is a matter of personality really. It’s not exactly a difficult test, but I personally found some of the questions hard to understand and needed some practice. For example, one of the questions read “Which is the right way to overtake other vehicles?” — the correct answer was “Turn on the left-turn right first, and overtake from the left side when sure of safety.”. It takes a while until you figure out they’re actually talking about the “left-turn light” Getting used to these typos takes a while and is important, as you will find the very same typos in the test. You will be surprised how strict Chinese traffic rules are in theory.

I’m sure you will find the questions somewhere if you google for them. A friend of mine created a file for jMemorize, complete with pictures of all traffic signs and the original typos. jMemorize is a free, very light open-source Java application, running on all major operating systems, to study “flashcards“. It will go through the questions randomly and check you more often on the ones you tend to fail.

> dt_plain.jml (.jml, 3.66MB)
Download jMemorize from their homepage http://jmemorize.org/.
> Chinese driving test on http://www.chinacartimes.com/ (mirror)

The fee for the test is another 55 CNY. You will receive a Chinese driver’s license, similar to this one , valid for 6 years. You are required to renew the license 90 days before expiration. Good luck!