edelweis Posted May 10, 2019 at 05:22 PM Report Share Posted May 10, 2019 at 05:22 PM 3 hours ago, Moshen said: Here is the link. thanks for the link! If you do take a road trip in China I hope you'll post about your experience on Chinese-Forums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moshen Posted May 10, 2019 at 07:47 PM Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2019 at 07:47 PM Quote If you do take a road trip in China I hope you'll post about your experience on Chinese-Forums We did a shorter road trip in China four years ago with my Chinese sister-in-law in her car, from Beijing through Inner Mongolia to Harbin and then the small town in Heilongjiang where my husband spent 6 years driving a truck during the Cultural Revolution. Once out of Beijing, the traffic was light. But my sister-in-law's GPS was outdated, so we were constantly contending with bad roads and getting lost. In many places there was no signage at major intersections, so we would stop and she would flag down a truck driver to ask which way we should go. Ditto when we had been in a city and needed to find the city exit. Many cities are set up so there are only three or four options for exiting the city, all of them not obvious. She would ask a local how to get out and most of the time they'd say, "Follow me," and they'd lead us through the twists and turns to get out. She also talked us into being able to stay in a couple of hotels that don't normally accept foreigners. My sister-in-law offered to drive us to Xinjiang, but she is a non-stop talker and I couldn't manage a road trip that long with no peace and quiet in the car. She also offered to drive us to Llasa, but the road we were looking at is closed to foreigners, even as passengers in a Chinese-driven car. We are hoping to go to Xinjiang before it closes up the way Tibet has. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edelweis Posted May 11, 2019 at 04:33 AM Report Share Posted May 11, 2019 at 04:33 AM @Moshen thanks for sharing your experience. I wish you success with your plans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moshen Posted October 14, 2019 at 12:10 AM Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 at 12:10 AM We are six days into our China road trip now. We easily procured a temporary Chinese drivers license at the Beijing airport which is valid for 1 year anywhere in China and valid just for driving a rented car. Reserving the rental car was a hassle. What they didn't tell us in advance was that the car rental company (a Hertz affiliate) would not rent any car to foreigners during Golden Week. So we could only start our road trip on October 8. In general, the car rental business in China is small compared to other countries and not very customer friendly. My husband, who is a Beijing native, had a hard time understanding the car rental people - partly because of a lot of jargon he didn't know and partly because of accent. So his sister, who lives in Beijing, did most of the negotiating for us. We have been navigating easily using Baidu Maps. More later when I have time. 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
889 Posted October 14, 2019 at 05:24 AM Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 at 05:24 AM " . . . partly because of a lot of jargon " This of course is also a problem in English: SLI, PAI, CDW, LDW etc. You never know what you're really agreeing to but you have to agree anyway. (And it's very useful to clear up that temporary licenses are still available to tourists at the airport, since there's been a lot of confusion about that.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyJonesLocker Posted October 14, 2019 at 05:35 AM Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 at 05:35 AM @Moshen 5 hours ago, Moshen said: We easily procured a temporary Chinese drivers license at the Beijing airport which is valid for 1 year anywhere in China and valid just for driving a rented car. Really useful info, many thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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