Ava and I took the plunge today to see just how difficult it would be for me to get a Chinese driving licence. Having brought my UK driving licence with me in the New Year, we had got it translated, obtained a proof of residency letter from the Police, a proof of employment letter from my school, 8 passport photos, a health certificate, a passport and photocopies of all the above. It took us 45 minutes to get to the Traffic Police Centre [see photo] and we finally started the process.
The first problem was the translated driving licence, which we were told had to be done by the official "Kunming Translation Service"!? So a 45 minute drive back to Kunming to find their little office and get them to stamp our tanslation, and then 45 minutes drive back. The second hiccup was when their computer system refused to process my details because I had passed my UK test when 17 years old. In China you need to be 18 and the computer couldn't handle the discrepancy. Eventually, Ava rang a friend who rang a friend who "instructed" the traffic police officer to simply change the date of my passed test to last year!
The first problem was the translated driving licence, which we were told had to be done by the official "Kunming Translation Service"!? So a 45 minute drive back to Kunming to find their little office and get them to stamp our tanslation, and then 45 minutes drive back. The second hiccup was when their computer system refused to process my details because I had passed my UK test when 17 years old. In China you need to be 18 and the computer couldn't handle the discrepancy. Eventually, Ava rang a friend who rang a friend who "instructed" the traffic police officer to simply change the date of my passed test to last year!
The final hurdle was the test itself - a timed, computerised, mutliple choice exam consisting of 100 questions about Chinese road rules. The test had apparently been recently translated into English - badly - but no one could give me any idea what the questions would be like. One Chinese examinee said he had heard it was "really easy" whilst another admitted to having taken it 7 times before! The rules are all written in a huge 250 page "Highway Code", but no one has thought to translate that into English! So alongside 100+ Chinese examinees, I gave it my best shot.
About 30 questions were blindingly obvious: "If you find the road blocked by a herd of animals should you (a) honk your horn repeatedly, (b) speed up, (c) weave from side to side, (d) slow down and be considerate". Another 30 were certainly guessable. About 10 had such mangled English that a wild guess was the only choice: "What material explode? (a) inflammable (b) gas tank (c) car fuel (d) explosive"!? That left about 30 which I could never have known - the levels of fines for various traffic offences, the number of years imprisonment for crashing a non-registered car, the minimum speed on certain roads, the name of the governmental body responsible for exhaust emissions, etc. I scored 76%. Not bad under the circumstances, but nowhere near the 90% required. So it was Ava who drove us home. However, her "friend's friend" returned our memory stick as we left and I see it now contains English questions and answers to all possible 3000 questions! I can retake the test once more without further payments, so now it's study time.
About 30 questions were blindingly obvious: "If you find the road blocked by a herd of animals should you (a) honk your horn repeatedly, (b) speed up, (c) weave from side to side, (d) slow down and be considerate". Another 30 were certainly guessable. About 10 had such mangled English that a wild guess was the only choice: "What material explode? (a) inflammable (b) gas tank (c) car fuel (d) explosive"!? That left about 30 which I could never have known - the levels of fines for various traffic offences, the number of years imprisonment for crashing a non-registered car, the minimum speed on certain roads, the name of the governmental body responsible for exhaust emissions, etc. I scored 76%. Not bad under the circumstances, but nowhere near the 90% required. So it was Ava who drove us home. However, her "friend's friend" returned our memory stick as we left and I see it now contains English questions and answers to all possible 3000 questions! I can retake the test once more without further payments, so now it's study time.
