Travel China and Beyond

Driving in China

Well, last year I wrote several postings on driving in Beijing, and taking road trips outside of the city.  Driving yourself certainly gives you the ability to see more and experience sites and people that you might not otherwise so it is something to consider.  However, I also underlined that driving in China could be rather challenging for the fact that many drivers are really inexperienced and do not give much thought to road regulations.  It is not unlikely to see drivers that are taking the access road of a highway BUT driving in the opposite direction of a one way road (which most access roads are).  Or seeing a driver backing on an exit ramp because he/she took the wrong exit from a highway so rather than taking the exit completely and getting back on the highway again later down the street, they put in reverse and drive back onto the highway…..(Believe me I have been in a car where the driver did JUST that - it was very scary…)

So having driven a car in China for a year (after getting a local drivers license via Fesco - you can see my post on how to do that on this blog), I was glad to see an article in Chinanews.cn that the Ministry of Public Safety is putting in place much stricter rules / exams for granting drivers licenses.  The new focus will be on “safety awareness” (per the Ministry) — i.e. road behaviour — instill in drivers the need for “road etiquette”….

I cannot wait for this to happen this will be a great goal and will bring huge improvement as long as the plan gets implemented.