12/22/2025
On my most recent trip to Shenzhen, I rented a Xiaomi SU7 as a tourist for a couple days. I’ve been to mainland China many times, but have never tried to drive there before and was quite curious about the whole process. Additionally, Chinese electric vehicles have become quite advanced compared to their Western counterparts, and I have always wanted to drive one.
Unfortunately, I do not speak Mandarin and there is not one place in English that explains exactly how you can do this. I figured I would write up my experience for others that are interested in the process!
Getting a license
China is one of the few countries that is not a party to the International Driving Permit treaties due to the presence of Taiwan. As a result, you cannot use an IDP within China and you must obtain a local driver’s license. You will want to obtain the temporary driving permit (临时机动车驾驶许可) as it has fewer requirements and doesn’t require a long-term visa.
Translating your local license
To receive a temporary driving permit, your foreign license must be in Chinese or translated to Chinese by an official translator. Since my license was issued in the United States, I had to hire a translator. I paid a service on Taobao 120¥ (~$17 USD) to translate the license and ship the certified translation to my hotel. The whole process takes about 2-3 days, and it can be shipped to your hotel overnight via SF Express. Note that the initial price on Taobao is only 10¥, but the exact price will be provided after ordering.
I would order the translation to your hotel before you arrive to ensure it arrives on time. Every hotel I have stayed at in China had no issue receiving packages or deliveries on my behalf, although you will need to make sure the physical address you provide in Chinese is correct.
Required documents
I provided the following documents to obtain my temporary driving permit in Shenzhen:
- Foreign passport with visa and entry stamp
- Original foreign driver’s license and translated copies
- Chinese version of my name
- Photograph (taken at the VMO for a small fee)
- Chinese phone number (potentially optional, but highly recommended)
Some sources state that other things are required, including tests or a medical exam. These are not required for a temporary driving permit. Additionally, even though many sources mention a medical exam at a hospital, the reality is that the VMO seems to have self-service kiosks to conduct the medical exam automatically.
Obtaining the temporary driving permit will require a decent amount of translation if you do not speak Mandarin like myself, but it is still possible to accomplish on your own. The staff will understand why you are there if you are obviously a tourist, and there was one employee who did speak partial English. I used live translation with my AirPods and it worked decently.
In Shenzhen, you can obtain a local driver’s license at the Vehicle Management Office at 128 Longjing Road, Nanshan District, Shenzhen. It is easy to reach via Line 7 of the Longjing station. No appointment is required, and it is impossible to make an appointment at all unless you have a permanent ID from HK/MO/TW/CN.
I walked in around 1pm and it took about 1.5 hours to fully issue the license. If you are successful, you will walk out with your temporary driving permit in hand!
The temporary license is valid for 90 days from the day of issuance or the length of your permitted stay in China, whichever is longer (up to 365 days). Since my visa is valid for 60 days per entry, I received a 90 day validity period. Ensure the class of license is “C1” (automatic vehicles).
Renting a car
After getting your license, it is time to rent a car! Car rentals in China are quite cheap if you will accept any vehicle type. On a random date I checked, reputable options were available for 50-100¥ per day, but this does exclude insurance and other fees. The two main options I am aware of are below; check their mini apps on WeChat for pricing and availability.
- Zuche (神州租车), a large car rental service that provides cars directly. I used this to rent my car and it worked well, but was more expensive than Ctrip.
- Ctrip (携程旅行), which provides a marketplace for car rental companies to market their vehicles. You can filter to ensure the company accepts foreign passports, but you may still want to check with the company for any other rules they have. I didn’t use it due to the ambiguity.
There can be some surprising things about this process! In particular, some car rental companies like Zuche will require you to have at least 30 days remaining on your visa entry into China, and you need to prove this with your entry stamp. US citizens typically receive a 60 day visa, so if your car rental begins within 30 days you won’t have any problem. However, shorter visas (like 240-hour transit without visa or 14/30 day visa-free countries) may experience significant issues with this. You can consider a short trip to HK or Macao to reset this period.
Zuche offered their best insurance package for 119¥ per day on a pretty expensive car, so I had no issue choosing this option. If you are not familiar with driving alongside mopeds or in similar regions, you should take whatever insurance you can get. I would not trust credit card-provided insurance because the payment will happen through a third party (WeChat) and the car rental provider would probably expect to be paid faster than your credit card will pay you back.
You will also be required to pay a deposit (mine was 2000¥) for any traffic violations you receive. Traffic cameras are numerous in China and detect being outside of the lane lines, speeding, etc. The deposit will be refunded within 14 days after your rental minus any fines.
Not all license plates can drive in all areas at all times in China. The car rental provider should indicate what kind of license plate the vehicle has. Some rules are relaxed for electric vehicles.
Driving in Shenzhen
In many ways, driving in China is similar to the United States! It is the same side of the road and many road signs are also in English. The most significant threat to your life will be mopeds, especially in industrial areas. They ride on both the street and the sidewalk and it can be pretty hard to predict how they will move.
You will also need a local navigation app to survive in China such as Amap. The Xiaomi car I rented had built-in navigation as well, although it was not translated like Amap. The best feature of these is that they provide very specific lane advice, and following which lane they suggest will make the language barrier much easier.
Parking
Parking garages are fully automated in China and are based on your license plate. Typically, you can enter a garage without any interaction and then scan the posted QR code with WeChat/Alipay to pay online before exiting. Entries for less than 15-30 minutes are commonly free.
Underground parking garages can be quite extreme in China, and are often not wide enough for comfort. Signage about the allowed directions are also commonly ignored, and often someone needs to back up to resolve conflicts.
Charging electric cars is also quite simple and fast, and works similarly to parking with a WeChat mini-app from the charging provider to pay for charging. Chargers in China can provide up to 800kW continuously, compared to a maximum of 250-350kW in the USA. If you do not have a social credit score, you will have to prepay a small deposit of 80¥.
Tolls
My Zuche car did not come with an ETC pass for electronic toll collection. As a result, I had to pay the tolls manually. You will receive a plastic blue card when entering the toll road, which you provide to the attendant when you exit the toll road. You can then pay the toll with your WeChat/Alipay QR code. The speed limit in Shenzhen was commonly 100 km/h on public highways but 120 km/h on the toll roads.
Most navigation seems to disable tolls by default, but the fee is not very high and is probably a good idea for tourists.
Should you do it?
In major cities in China, public transit is so advanced that having a car is often detrimental. The Shenzhen metro is so widespread and well-run that it can be used for almost any trip. DiDi taxi fares are extremely cheap as well, often around 10-30¥ for basic cars. When moving between cities, the high-speed rail network and domestic airlines are similarly very well-developed.
So, given you have a non-trivial risk of crashing, it’s probably not worth it for most trips. However, it’s quite a novel experience, and you will get a cool keepsake of a CN driving permit, so if you have visited already, why not?