Learning to drive

Here's an old post on learning how to drive here:

Let me share my experience of getting a driving license in China without a license from my home country.

I don't speak Chinese well, my level is about HSK1-2, very basic. I don't own a driving license from my home country, so for me I had to go the more difficult way: 2 computer test, 2 driving test.

If you have your driving license in your home country, the process is fairly simple. You can skip the 2 driving test (which are in Chinese, but I will let you know how I overcome this difficulty), and you can just do the computer tests which are super easy and in English. Another thing, if you are from Belgium and have a Belgian driving license, you can get a Chinese license issued without ANY test.

I payed 4900 for driving school and my instructor was as super chill Chinese guy in his 40s. The funny thing is that he speaks English like the way I speak Chinese, very basic, but regardless it was really good because at the same time I also teach him some English and he also teach me some Chinese. Sometimes he was giving me cigarette while we are driving (wtf xd). One time when we were going to the driving site, he was smoking, having a phone call and driving at the same time (lol). Anyway, to even start practicing driving a car, you need to pass the first computer exam. There's an application called "Laowai drive test". Good news, the questions are 100% same at the exam site, as in the application. For the first exam, you need to practice 1000 questions. Don't get too intimated, I reviewed the whole stuff in 5 days, luckily it's always multiple choice, so basically no critical thinking needed. You just memorize the answers, go through all the 1000 questions and the app will separate the questions you failed, and you can reviewed the failed ones too. Rinse and repeat. I got like 98% on the exam.

You schedule all exams through an app called 12123, very easy to register, need to upload some docs and you are ready to schedule all exams. One important thing, is that you need your Chinese name on your temporary residence registration form. Went to the police, they put my Chinese name on it in 30 mins. (ctd..)

/r/shanghai Thread