I wanted to buy a scooter (50cc) which I should be able to drive with my German car license (or international driver’s license but I don’t have one with me).
The lady at the shop looked at me and told my Chinese friend, don’t laugh, I would be to big for a 50cc bike and should by something bigger.
Well, I am not that big nor fat, but my friend also supported this idea and said it’s easy to obtain a license for bikes up to 125 (or 150?) cc.
Supposingly I don’t even need to do a written test, just drive a few meters on the scooter and that’s it.
Could anybody confirm if this is true and explain to me, in a nutshell, what I need to do and where I need to do this / where I need to go?
I read through the other therads but usually they refer to car’s license only and the government website doesn’t explain this either.
I don’t know where you are, but here in Tainan I had to go to the motor vehicle office, make a reservation for the testing day (you can do it the next day if you want), pay the fee and, first off, do the written test … don’t sweat it, you can ask to listen to the test (in poor English, mind you, but you take what you can get sometimes, so it really helps if your Chinese is at least passable like mine was at the time) and then click the correct answer on the computer. The problem here is that some of the questions are definitely hard to understand if you can’t read Chinese, and your CD may be scratchy or damaged, making it hard to hear the test. Also, if you are outside of Taipei or Kaohsiung, you may have to wait for your test day if they have a limited number of foreigners who can take the test at any one time.
Next, you do the road test, which consists of driving around a small semi-circle and stopping at various points for a traffic light, railroad crossing, pedestrian signal ... I think that's it. Then, go pick up your license, which will be valid for the duration of your ARC, or you can appeal it and get a longer term license as Richard has previously mentioned. Hope this helps!