Forums > Travel Yunnan > Chengdu to Thailand Am thinking about starting in Laos and going up to Jinghong in Sipsongpanna, then going back to Laos and eventually Thailand using a Lao-registered rental car, but this won't be until the second half of July. Purpose of travel is business to collect some product samples, but of course, I will also visit some tourist sites as well. If your trip is flexible, please send me a PM to discuss. Although I will be travelling with a couple of people, would still be nice to have one more person to share the costs with.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Getting a driver's license in Jinghong or Mengla There are some websites that mention getting a temporary Chinese driver's license for foreigners that wish to participate in self-drive tours, in the Mengla area, however, these are temporary licenses only. Would this be an option for me in case the information I received above is incorrect? As mentioned earlier, I won't be going back to Kunming until well after the end of the trip, so going up to Kunming just to get my license wouldn't be a practical option.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Getting a driver's license in Jinghong or Mengla OK, thanks for that info regarding where it is possible to get a driver's license. In any case, I have been told it is possible to take a Lao-registered vehicle up as far north as Jinghong, but no further. Presumably a foreign driver's license would be acceptable for driving in this region of China, if a foreign registered car is being driven...this is the information I have been given so far.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Getting a driver's license in Jinghong or Mengla Hi, I normally live in Kunming, but am currently out of the country and will be travelling on business to Laos and Sipsongpanna (西双版纳 in Chinese) as far north as Simao, but will be travelling back to Laos after that, and so won't be back in Kunming until later on.
I plan to go by car (although i may or may not be driving myself and it might be a Lao registered vehicle, haven't got the details yet though), and was wondering if it was possible to get a Chinese driver's license in Jinghong or Mengla or Simao city or somewhere like that. Would it also be possible to take the exam in English, as I am not fluent enough in Chinese to take the exam in Chinese yet, or otherwise, take along an interpreter? Also, I'm guessing I would need to get a new translation of my driver's license done somewhere in that area too.
On another matter, I took the test once in Kunming back in December but didn't have enough time to study the whole manual, so I got 89%! which absolutely sucks because that's only 1% short of passing and didn't have the opportunity to redo it since then, would my details still be in their system? I know a case of someone who retook the exam after like 3 months and their details were still there, so they simply showed up with their I.D., paid the 60 Yuan fee again and retook the test, no problem.
Also, how do drivers of Lao registered vehicles (mainly in southern Yunnan) legally drive in China if their Lao licenses aren't officially recognized by China? Would they have to go through all the hassle of getting at least a temporary Chinese driver's license? Anyone know?
Forums > Travel Yunnan > Chinese National going to Laos by land The information given above is correct; Chinese authorities do not care if Chinese nationals are eligible for visas on arrival, because they won't let a Chinese citizen exit the country without a visa in their passport. This regulation has recently been strictly enforced according to an article I read recently. I can also corroborate what the posters above said, which is when I was at Suvarnabhumi airport on my way to Kunming a few months ago, a group of Chinese nationals on their way back to Beijing all had Thai visas in their passports from the embassy in Beijing in spite of Thailand offering a 15-day visa on arrival service and those persons having only spent 4 days in Thailand. Therefore, this service is a mute point for Chinese citizens, who can only take advantage of it if they are entering Thailand (or Laos) from another country, other than China.
Riding into Kunming's future
发布者There's a flight from Kunming to Beirut? Wow...
Changshui Airport set to debut
发布者Some airlines, particularly international ones like THAI have not updated their systems to reflect the new airport. At the beginning, starting tomorrow, I'm sure there will be some passengers that won't know about the change and will thus go to the wrong airport and miss their flights.
Yunnan goes infrastructure crazy
发布者Yeah the Lijiang line is currently under construction, while the Ruili line is supposed to form part of a proposed Kunming-Myanmar rail link - it will probably also be constructed at some stage (as reported by GoKM last year) but I suspect it will take a little while.
Yunnan goes infrastructure crazy
发布者All of this is quite amazing, but even in China not everything goes to plan. Originally the proposed high speed railway from Kunming to Vientiane, Laos via Jinghong and Boten was supposed to be completed by 2015, but a number of issues will likely push back that project for another 10 or more years, though I do believe that it will eventually be built. Also, since the idea is to link south-western China with the south-east Asian coast, Thai and eventually Malaysian and Singaporean co-operation is vital to building this link in the first place; building a line only as far as Vientiane would likely turn out to be a white elephant project since the objective is to make most income from moving goods between SE Asia and SW China quickly via train rather than passengers and that requires linking SW China to a coastline - something which Laos doesn't have.
Regarding the Hekou line, they've been proposing that one for years now since trains stopped running between Kunming and Hekou in 2002. Finally this article mentions a new high-speed line is under construction, but this will be of little use unless the Vietnamese also build a complementary high-speed line on their side (sure, they already have an existing railway line running from Lao Cai via Hanoi down to Saigon, but it's rather slow). Also, the Vietnamese government recently turned down a proposal for converting their existing line into a high-speed line, citing the high cost and the low passenger volumes that would utilize the line.
Changshui Airport set to debut
发布者Wow, it's finally upon us. The new airport will finally open at the end of this month! Only thing is, I'd avoid non-essential travel in and out of this airport for the first couple of weeks since it will probably be more chaotic than usual and things may not go as planned (for example baggage claim may be unusually slow).
I like the statement "For travelers without cars, taxis are always an option." well of course they are. For starters, most people in Kunming still don't own a car despite all the cars on the roads these days. Secondly, even if you do have a car, who would drive to the airport in order to catch a flight and then park their car for the duration of their overseas or interprovincial stay there? I don't think long-term parking is well known in China so even a week's worth of parking could become very expensive and possibly more expensive than even in some western countries.
I am looking forward to the proposed direct Europe flights. Anyone have any idea about when these flights might begin and who which carriers will offer service (presumably Chinese carriers I would imagine)?