Almost there.... after several months, lots of paperwork and many trips to the police station with my patient co-teacher, tomorrow I go to collect my Chinese motorbike driving licence. Phew!
On Monday I took the translation of my UK driving licence and finally got the UK to convert it into a Chinese one (getting to this stage had been far from easy!) So my co-teacher and I filled in some forms, got some special photos taken (with my passport number on them) and had my eyes tested for colour-blindness. There was a guy asleep on the sofa in that office! The man who tested me managed to say 'one, two, three, four, five' in English, so I returned the favour by saying the numbers I could see in Chinese to him. Someone made up my eyesight(!) and my height(1m70 apparently - I must have grown!!) I had to pay money several times for various things and then I got a piece of paper to say I should do the theory test.
We took a taxi out of town to the place they told us to go to, but when we got there everyone seemed to be leaving. A random guy gave us someone's phone number, so we headed off to meet him on a street corner. Turned out that he was a policeman and if I paid more money I wouldn't have to do the theory test. After lots of phone discussions it transpired that as I was a foreigner I wouldn't be allowed to bribe anyone(!) Haha.
Today we managed to find out where to do the test (finally) and I stepped into a corridor full of Chinese men all staring at me. How I hate those moments. We queue-jumped wildly and got into the test room. When the supervisor turned up he looked at my documents and assigned me to a computer to the do the test. My co-teacher and I began.
There were 100 questions, all in Chinese. Some were just road signs, some true / false questions and some multiple choice. Even with her good English, and a handy book that the invigilator gave us (with all the answers in!) it took us ages and we didn't manage to finish in 45 minutes (the allowed time). We only got 59 and needed 90 to pass...
So then we waited a while and another batch of people came in. This time I was re-assigned to a computer at the back of the classroom. We started the test and before long the invigilator came along and did a load of questions for me. After a while he went away so my co-teacher and I tried to do some more (slowly!) Then the invigilator sent over his colleague who finished off the answers for me and checked the previous ones - result. 95!!!
Now if that's not dishonest I don't know what is, but I'm happy. I passed.
Just need a motorbike now....
PS - I didn't post this the other day when I wrote it, but I duly collected my licence the following day and you'll be pleased to know that my nationality is actually Chinese!! Apparently there was no facility to change it..
I've bought a bike and am just waiting for the paperwork to be finished. Photos to follow.
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3 comments:
I heard that you can take a AAA driving test and transfer that over here to china where they will automatically give you a local DL, any merit to that?
Hek
Hi Hek. I used my UK driving licence which was transfered to a Chinese driving licence. It took a while - but the only difficult bit was the theory test. The best way is to contact the local police station that deals with licences and ask them what they want - take your current DL with you.
What is the AAA driving test?
Yay, well done you...ah, and I never thought I'd see the day Steph cheated in an exam...tee hee xxx
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