I am now an officially licensed driver in the country of China. Call me crazy, but yes, I have driven here and am alive to tell the tale. You may not recognize the name (neither do I), but it is me...picture gives it away. The name on the license, so they tell me, is Fei Luo Na. Close to the name I have on my business card which is Fei Luo De. It is supposed to be a close representation of my last name. I have only driven one day so far, as I have spent much of the last week in Beijing. This Sunday will be my second time behind the wheel here in Shanghai. It does feel strange to be driving where we have had many near misses and several harrowing taxi rides, but where we live has relatively "normal" traffic. I doubt that I will spend any time driving in the more heavily congested areas where the streets are narrow, too many bikes/pedestrians/crazy taxis to avoid.
Getting the license was easy. Two trips are required, one to get eyes and ears checked, the other to take a 100 question multiple choice test. They give you the answers ahead of time so it is basically a test of memorization as the translation is poor and some of the rules are not real obvious.
Wish me luck...I'll need it...