Before you start

A valid residence permit
Your foreign licence, valid, with an accepted Chinese translation
A Chinese driver medical examination
Passport and temporary residence registration slip

Step-by-step

1
Accept that the IDP does not work here
Mainland China is not party to the 1968 Vienna Convention, so an International Driving Permit confers nothing. Driving on a foreign licence is driving unlicensed.
OnlineWho: You
2
Get an accepted translation of your licence
The vehicle administration accepts translations from designated agencies only; one commissioned abroad will normally be refused at the counter.
In personWho: You
3
Complete the driver medical
A short examination at an approved hospital covering eyesight, colour vision and limb function. The certificate has a limited life — do it close to the application.
In personWho: You1 day
4
Sit Subject 1, the written theory test
One hundred questions from a published national bank, taken on a terminal, available in English. For ordinary car categories the field and road tests are waived when converting a valid foreign licence. Practise with a question-bank app.
In personWho: YouHalf a day
5
Check whether you actually need a car
Suzhou is flat, the Industrial Park was planned with cycle infrastructure, the metro covers the Park, the old town and the New District, and DiDi is cheap. Many foreign residents here never convert at all. The case for a car is weekend trips to the water towns and Yangcheng Lake, not the commute.
Mobile appWho: You
6
Understand the Shanghai plate problem before buying
If you buy a car with a Suzhou plate, note that Shanghai restricts non-Shanghai plates on its elevated expressways during peak hours. Driving to Shanghai for work is therefore slower than the map suggests, and the high-speed train or the Line 11 metro connection is usually the better answer.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport and residence permit
Temporary residence registration slip
Foreign driving licence and accepted Chinese translation
Driver medical certificate
Passport photographs to Chinese specification

Things most newcomers don’t know

Suzhou has no plate quota, and that is worth a great deal against its neighbours.

Shanghai auctions plates at around RMB 90,000. Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Guangzhou all run quotas, and Beijing's lottery has odds near 0.3%. Suzhou does not ration plates at all — you buy a car and register it. For anyone living in Suzhou and working across the delta this is a substantial and rarely mentioned advantage, and it is one reason people who work in Shanghai choose to live here.

Source: community-reported

A Suzhou plate is restricted on Shanghai's elevated roads at peak times.

Shanghai excludes non-Shanghai-plated vehicles from its elevated ring and radial expressways during weekday peak periods. So the obvious move — live in Suzhou, buy a cheap Suzhou plate, drive into Shanghai — runs into exactly the restriction that Shanghai designed to prevent it. The high-speed train at around twenty-five minutes, or the Line 11 metro connection for a fraction of the fare, is the practical answer.

Source: Shanghai municipal traffic authority

The practical driving tests are waived, which makes China easier to convert into than Japan or Korea.

Holders of a valid foreign licence converting to an ordinary car category normally sit only Subject 1, the written theory examination, available in English. The exceptions are heavy vehicle categories, and applicants who cannot evidence enough residence in the issuing country during the year the licence was obtained.

Source: Ministry of Public Security traffic management rules

The Industrial Park is one of the few Chinese districts genuinely designed for cycling.

SIP was master-planned on a Singaporean model with separated cycle infrastructure, wide verges and a coherent street grid, which is unusual in a Chinese city built in the 1990s. Combined with a flat delta landscape and the metro, it means many foreign residents in the Park cycle year-round and never own a car. The old town, with its canal grid and narrow lanes, is even better for bikes and worse for cars.

Source: Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee

Common mistakes to avoid

Arriving with an International Driving Permit and assuming you can drive.
Buying a car for a Shanghai commute and discovering the elevated-road restriction.
Booking the theory test before the translation and medical are in hand.
Assuming Suzhou drives like Shanghai — the canal old town is genuinely hard to drive in.
Overlooking how much of the Park is faster by bicycle than by car.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.