Rules for foreigners driving in China

Cars run on the Yan’an Road elevated way. Foreigners must follow Chinese rules on auto plates, driving licenses and vehicles to drive in the country. — Zhang Suoqing

About car plate

Temporary entry means that vehicles and drivers entering Chinese territory for fewer than three months including owned vehicles and rented cars.

China’s Ministry of Public Security has a 25-segment regulation for vehicles and driv-ers temporarily entering Chinese territory. And the regulation has added two items: foreign vehicles and foreign drivers driving in a certain area within the border region after entry and foreign drivers renting a car in China after entry.

The regulation states that foreign vehicles are required to apply for car plates if they only operate within the border region after entry and the regulation also states that local police can draft their own version of guidelines subject to local situations.

About driving license

According to the regulation, overseas driving license holders can drive a vehicle without driver examination, but they have to get a temporary certificate for driving a vehicle after proper traffic law and traffic safety education. Traffic police will inspect the foreign driving license to see if the person is allowed to drive his car temporar-ily in China before he/she is issued with a temporary driver’s certificate.

The regulation also states that the traffic police will screen the traffic record of the certificate applicant for unsolved traffic vio-lations and accidents in China. Once found, the applicant will be told first to solve them before receiving the certificate. If the appli-cant had hit-and-run record in China, he or she will not be allowed a certificate.

About vehicle

Temporarily-entered drivers will only be able to drive their temporarily-entered vehicles or rented vehicles in China and will not be able to drive other vehicles in China. The rented vehicles are restricted to small cars.

(Translated by Shen Li)