Hi,
I'm tentatively planning to come to Kunming this fall or winter, rent a car for a couple of weeks, and drive down through Laos to Chiang Mai, then back up. I know I can't legally drive in China without a Chinese license, but apparently one can acquire a provisional license at the airport in Beijing.
So, does anyone know if having a provisional license will be an obstacle in renting a car in Kunming? Or if the Kunming airport offers on-the-spot provisional licenses?
—Matt
Kunming airport does not offer a service to make provisional driver licenses, however, who knows what might happen once the new airport opens in December? Don't hold your breath though, as this kind of service will take time to spread out to the rest of the country. A better option would be to get a permanent Chinese driver's license in say, Kunming and it seems to be possible to get this on a tourist visa (I applied when I had a tourist visa and nobody noticed the difference, though officially you might need a longer stay visa). If the authorities ask, claim you are in the process of getting a student or other type of visa, even if you are not.
Provisional licenses can apparently also be obtained in Kunming, but not at the airport. Perhaps this would be another suitable option rather than getting a permanent license.
About renting a car in China and driving down to Laos or Thailand, the only way to do this would be to go through an official self-drive tour agency such as ontheroadinchina.com (contact Peter Schindler) although his tours are expensive (think US$5000 or so for a 12 day tour from Kunming to Chiang Mai via northern Laos, although everything is included). Although I have seen a couple of China registered cars in northern Vietnam, border regions of Laos and even northern parts of Thailand (I think I've only ever seen 2 Chinese registered vehicles driving in Thailand in the many years I've either lived or travelled there) they are few and far between and importantly are not rental vehicles, but private ones. I believe Hertz or Avis may offer a self-drive service that allows cross border travel (only available from Shanghai or Beijing) but this would not be possible without the assistance of an agency such as ontheroadinchina.com. You generally can't rent a car and drive it across the border and certainly not without assistance...Asia is not like Europe or North America where you can just drive across an international border in your own car just like that.
Another option would be to use the services of AVR Laos in Vientiane, which can rent vehicles for self-drive purposes that can be taken into China (only xishaungbanna without approval; so don't go north of Jinghong), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and presumably Malaysia and Singapore would also be allowed too. This is the only standard car rental company in East Asia that I am aware of that offers such a service (cross-border self drive). In fact, for driving in xishuangbanna (Sipsongbanna) a Chinese license doesn't seem to be required if you are driving a Lao registered vehicle...however, you would need to revise your options and would likely have to miss out on Kunming since they don't allow travel up to Kunming (there is a police checkpoint about 100km north of Jinghong that normally prevents Lao registered vehicles from proceeding further north into the Chinese interior).
Update to my reply above: Avis China is renting out vehicles in conjuction with ontheroadinchina.com for driving around China (and sometimes into nearby countries). All contact should be made via ontheroadinchina.com as I don't believe Avis makes private deals with customers to drive their cars outside of China.
Another update: the company in Laos that I mentioned apparently also now has an office in Luang Prabang, which is closer to the Chinese border than the capital, Vientiane is. I am not sure if they offer the same services there, but you can always contact them to find out (Europcar/AVR Laos).
Update 3: information i received about Europcar Laos is incorrect; they only have one office in the capital, but are able to arrange pickup upcountry, though this will cost extra.
Hi,
It's not allowed to drive in China, unless you have a Chinese driving license, I am Dutch and I just got one driving license, now I could drive in Kunming.
I think the best way is to rent a car, and hire a driver, or go with a friends who hold Chinese driving license :-)
Good luck and welcome to Kunming!
Best regards,
Linda
More info about travelling in Yunnan, you may find on this website
www.wondersofyunnan.com
Hi,
It's not allowed to drive in China, unless you have a Chinese driving license, I am Dutch and I just got one driving license, now I could drive in Kunming.
I think the best way is to rent a car, and hire a driver, or go with a friends who hold Chinese driving license :-)
Good luck and welcome to Kunming!
Best regards,
Linda
More info about travelling in Yunnan, you may find on this website
www.wondersofyunnan.com
The information I have provided above re: driving in Xishuangbanna is correct. However, for China in general, a local driver's license is required and the steps needed to get one have already been mentioned, or you can do a search on this topic here on gokunming.com.
