After nearly 6 months of form-filling, question-asking, test-taking, and a whole lot of good ‘ole Chinese ‘mafan’ (a very common Chinese word for something that is very troublesome), today I finally received my very own Chinese drivers license!
This might sound like a whole lot of hype for something so basic, but that is simply not true here in China. Very few things are simple and easy in China, and getting a drivers license definitely is not one of them. I started the paperwork back in December and just now finished everything today. Even the past couple days have been quite exciting.
The day before yesterday, I finally took the written test, which you must score a 90% or higher to pass. The English translation of the test was so bad that it was often much easier to read and understand the Chinese instead. I had a friend help explain some of the tougher questions to me and together we managed to score about an 87%. The teachers who graded the test went through all of the questions with me and eventually fudged on my score and gave me a passing score of 92%. That was nice of them 🙂
Then they told me to come back the next day at 9 a.m. to have someone sign something and then to finish up getting my license. I arrived late at about 11 a.m. and the guy went in and had one of the important people sign one of the forms. Then he said that I would have to come back at 2:30 p.m. to have yet another guy sign another form. That is not unusual in China, so I came back at 3 or so.
At 3, the same guy went and had another guy sign the form. Then he took the form back to the first person and had him sign again, in another spot. Then they gave all of my case file to another lady who told me to come back at 5 to pick up my license. I really hadn’t done anything but stand there and watch them pass my file around signing things.
I arrive shortly after 5, and am told by the same lady to have a seat and wait a while. By almost 6, I am finally handed my drivers license.
China is quite the place to live. They know how to make even the simplest things a difficult and patience-trying task.
But I am happy that I finally have my license!
