Thanks for this useful thread
I've heard that they ask you why you want to get a drivers licence (by people who gave the wrong answers...) they couldn't even take the test. All they could do was take a train to Chendgu and try again there...
Any advice on what to say and what not to say?
cheers
Ilan
When my wife decided to get her Chinese license my sister asked a simple question. "Does she have a death wish?"
@Ilan G.
I thing that the question of purpose is asked to see if you need a car, minibus, or motorbike license. These are different licenses and have different theory tests.
They may also want to know if this is for domestic use only, no commercial use.
And so you should answer:
car or motorbike
Commuting and travel with family/friends.
A car drivers license is what you need you cannot ride a motorcycle or gas scooter inside Kunming city only electric.
A car license will cover a 125cc motorcycle but no point to say that, as you with pay a fine and lose in anyway in Kunming.
thanks for your input, but I wasn't refering to this kind of question,
actually what they asked my friends was : where are you going to drive to? And the very wrong answer was "we don't know yet, we are going to travel accross China".... after which they didn't let them take the test (my guess would be that the authorities don't want foreigners goings in certain parts of Sichuan for example (the parts were foreigners can't go to by public transports because of "bad roads" when Chinese people can)
anyway I plan on using my license for tourism as well... so I didn't want to mess it up like they did... any advice on that?
Other question HFCAMPO mentions "copies" of the translated license visa etc. Do you know how many copies are required? (since they need 5 pictures, I'm worried not to have enough photocopies)
cheers
Ilan
@Ilan G.
I would give an answer that is compatible with 'normal' use.
- want to buy a car
-driving to the shops, college, Dali, etc.
Perhaps they don't want people driving to the border to buy drugs. And the travelling across China could indeed be a problematic answer for many reasons.
2 copies of the translation should suffice. I don't recall needing more than that.
Yunnan is too close to Tibet, so any reason that isn't related to tourism or long road trip to border areas or Sichuan.
thanks tigertiger and AlexKMG,
I suppose I'll just tell them I want to buy a car to drive around Kunming then... but can you even buy a car on a student visa?
@Ilan G.
Ah! now that is a different question to which I don't have the answer. One for the DMV perhaps, unless there are students on here with a a car.
The DMV is in the west of the city and directly behind the car dealerships that are directly behind the 'Transformer' statue (15m high) just off the elevated highway.
@Ilan,
I don't see why you could not buy a car on a student VISA. My wife was able to purchase using a visitor's VISA.
