First, do you have a license already from your home country?

If NOT, then you have to go to a driving school, take the classes, then take both a written and a road test. I don't know how to do that because I do not know of any driving schools that have English language instructors.

If YES, then there is a way to essentially "convert" your home license -- but you still need to take a written test.

You can do it yourself or you can pay one of two organizations to help you through the process.

I just did it and it was a breeze with a guy named Jeff from Beijing Easy (info@beijing-easy.com) who frequenly posts classifieds in our free classifieds at www.thatsbj.com. He charges RMB 800 for the service.

Yes, you can save money by doing it on your own, but considering that he bascially filled out all the paperwork (chinese only), took me for the eye exam, arranged for photos to be taken, drove me to the motor vehicle bureau on the southeast 4th ring road (a 50 kuai cab ride easily each way) and gave me an English coy of the exam booklet, I think it was well worth it. FESCO also offers a similar service.

BTW the exam is not easy if you have not prepared (it's a 100-question multiple choice exam), no matter how good a driver you are in your home country. The 100 questions are taken directly from the copy of the exam booklet, which contains something like a thousand possible questions. About 75% of the questions can be figured out via common sense but the other 25% are challenging -- things like "what's the max speed limit on a 30-meter wide road" and "how many points are deducted from your license for running a red light", etc

Check out the February 2006 issue of that's Beijing (hits streets at the end of Jan), there's a quiz featuring actual questions from the exam.

Here's another great article with more details of how to do it on your own from Beijing Today:

http://bjtoday.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=7277996

There's probably a rule against it somewhere but where there's a will, there's a way ... I'd recommend asking Jeff at Beijing Easy ... he's the guy who helped me with my license. His details can be found at the end of the driving quiz on the thatsbj blog here.

(in fact, if you really want to do this it might be easier to have your visa status changed ... which you can do for a price. Ask the myriad "visa gangsters" who post ads in the services category of our free classifieds at www.thatsbj.com

Don't forget the questions:

What is the correct footwear to wear while driving:
a) barefeet
b) slippers
c) Shoes

What should you do if you need to spit while driving:
a) out of the window
b) on the floor of the car
c) into a tissue

If you pass an accident what should you do:
a) drive on
b) stop to help
c) stop & negotiate, if reward- OK

If you have 800 yuan burning a hole in your pocket, FESCO will gladly take it as payment for helping you to apply for a driver's license. You still have to get a medical checkup and take the computer-based test though, so you're better off keeping that 800 yuan and doing the process yourself.

I found these steps on this website to be fairly accurate when getting my driver's license without paying large sums to FESCO:
http://www.c2008.org/rendanews/english_te.asp?id=1717

The cost to do the process yourself is:
~80 yuan for the eye exam
~50 yuan for the application
~5 yuan for the computer-based examination
~10 yuan for the license itself once you've passed the test

The process will require a total of at least 3 trips to the far away land of Nan Si Huan (south fourth ring road)

Trip 1: to present:
- your driver's license,
- translation of your drivers license into Chinese in black ink (which you can get a friend to easily do),
- passport with Z class visa,
- registration fee,
- 3 1-inch photos,
- medical checkup paper and application form (both forms completed in Chinese)
Trip 2: to take the computer-based test
Trip 3: to pick up the license

The medical check up consisted of looking at some eye charts at the Sino-Japan Friendship Hospital for a total of 2 minutes and paying 80 yuan. I recommend you go to the hospital before the traffic bureau, otherwise the police officer there will give you a medical check up form and tell you to come back when its completed, and you'll have wasted several hours. When going to the hospital, make sure to bring the driver's license health form with you, a 1 inch photo, and your passport. Get the form from the local PSB or someone that's already been.

The traffic bureau is a 50 yuan taxi ride from Zhongguancun or a 5 yuan subway trip (nearest subway Sihui East on the red line) + 15 yuan taxi. Tests are held at 9 AM and 10 AM Tuesday and Thursday, and they register you for a test occuring approximately 2 weeks later. FESCO has published a translated guide of about 1000 test questions and answers using poorly-written English. If you can memorize the information in the guide, the computer test should be trivial. You will need to study though as some of the questions are not obvious to get right.

Sample questions (verbatim):

Question 1:
When the severely burnt person is thirsty (sic), he can drink some salty water to supplement the water lost.

Answer: True

Question 2:
As a cattle-drawn cart is making a turn, the driver should decelerate in advance, and observe and running direction of the cart (sic), no competing for the road ahead is permitted.
A. the speed
B. the road position
C. the moving

I'll put down my experience for anyone who needs it.

Driving school

First you pay then they give you a the 1000 question book and a test date, they have the eye test at the driving school but it's just a b.s. 1 second test i did'nt do any medical test.

After you pass the written test settle in for a long wait maybe 1 or 2 months as suprisingly there are quite a few people wanting to learn but only one car avalable for teaching.

First you do a test with 6 sticks it's weird and complicated to explain, just requires you to know how to reverse

Also the instructor doesn't speak one word of english so if you can't speak better than average chinese forget about it or you will have pretty frustraing time as most of the 9 things on the obsticale course are easy to master if you follow the instructions correctly, without proper instruction i think they would be a headache

you will be expected to do around 30hours of driving all up if you fail a test you have to do an extra week fail twice you have to wait a month.

All in all it's pretty nice to go just another good experience in china.

Saw this article from the Christian Science Montior's Beijing correspondent. It seems to give a good introduction to the current system:

When driving in China, first know where to spit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070124/wl_csm/olett24x

Oriental Fashion Driving School, Tel: 58061999, Web: dfss.com.cn (don't deal with motorcycles)
Shenghua Driving School, Tel: 67372117, Mobile: 13910091859

Motorcycle riding classes at Shenghua are 2 months long (58 class hours) and cost Y1000. But it seems like you can just take the test without any classes, but it will still cost you Y1000.

But first of all, you have to take the road rules test (after studying the book).

I received my license with an "F" visa and the temporary residence permit. The permit was required, although that is very easy to get. It is a little piece of paper that your apartment building manager gets filled out (and stamped) by the local police station.

I used the Beijing Easy service (www.beijing-easy.com). Jeff speaks very good English and helps with everything. I did mine about a year ago, and it was 800 RMB back then. It takes about 3 weeks to get your license (most of that time is waiting for the written exam booking).

The license is valid for 6 years.

Jeff will provide the transportation to take the medical and to set up the appointment for the test. You will need to get to the testing place on your own and to pick up the license on your own, if you pass.

ok, i know this legal way is of course, what the "official" people and the admin have to say here.

but the other way (without test and everything else) is this allowed way, its just that this companies use a mistake in the chinese law.

i have never tried it, yet. but you pay money (from 4000-5000y), give them the copy of passport and copy of foreign dl and they make a official license for you in some days.
the only thing is, its not a beijing one, but maybe guangdong or hubei or so.

i spoke to some people and it seems to work.
costs more, but... hey. if it works...

I second the nomination of Jeff. He helped me get mine as well

did you walk or take the bus to the southeast 5th ring road for the minimum 2 trips you have to make it down there and to the place where you need the eye exam? I'd estimate I saved about 200 kuai in taxi fees by having Jeff shuttle me around. I also saved I'd say about 4-8 hours of additional bureacratic hassle and misery, well worth the fee Jeff charges.

80 fees
100 your test book
200 taxi fees

So we're now up to about 400 ... so the question you have to ask is: how much is your additional time worth to you?

I actually had a very good experience with FESCO. Firstly negotiated price down to RMB 600. Medical test took place at FESCO building, and when the doctor was out because of lunch, it consisted of, 'how tall are you?', the rest was filled out by the staff there.

Day of test, drove up to the test center (oops, without a license I guess), looked at the test, filled in the answers despite having not studied, finished in about 30 min and went outside. The FESCO girl was there with about 6 others who had used FESCO. We all had to wait much longer than the others for the results, but unlike the others, surprise, all of us passed! Picked up my freshly minted license from FESCO that afternoon.

RMB 600? Even at RMB 800, what a bargain!!

My guess is YES. When I received my license, the PSB looked at the dates carefully on my foreign license. In fact, the PSB back-dated my Chinese driving license's validity to the validity date on my foreign license (so I didn't actually get a full 6 years for my Chinese license).

You may want to call FESCO or Beijing-Easy and ask them. They do this stuff all the time so I would guess they have come across your situation.

does anyone have this Jeff guy's contact number? or FESCO's number?

i will need to get a Chinese License soon, as the license from my country expires in about 2 months, am i still able to get a chinese license? even though ive only got about 2 months validity on my overseas license? please advise, thank you!