I’m almost done with the drivers license process, only having to take the test next Friday. Though it’s becoming more and more aggrivating every time I have to deal with them.
Last week:
Went to the DMV over in Xinzhuang. It’s my first time there, as I did the initial paperwork at a different office. I had everything ready. Passport, certificates, drivers license and copies of everything. I went to the table and greeted the officer. Barely giving me a notice, she took my documents and went through them. She wrote a few things down, handed me my passport and said, “Copy.” She needs a copy. Great.
“Copy.” she says again.
“Where?”
She points behind her, and says, “Copy.”
I looked behind her. I see no copy machine. She continues to write. “Where do I get a copy made?”
She now points to the left. “Copy.”
I look to the left. No copy machine there either. “Where?” I ask again.
“Copy.” She now points to the left and behind.
Must be behind the bar-looking thing. I got up and started to walk behind the police desks, to the surprise of a couple of other officers there, and see nothing behind the bar other than stacks of boxed-up paper and an empty bottle of green tea. I’m getting angry at this point. I sat back down, copy-less, and she continues to write stuff down on some papers. “I can’t find the copy machine.” She looks up, rather annoyed at me now.
“Copy.” She says again. Fucking hell! She’s now pointing out the door, to the left and back.
I got up again, went out the office door, back to where people usually sit and wait, looked around and still found no copy machine. Now I’m rightly pissed off. What the hell is this woman on about? Is she absolutely stupid? I walked back to her again, passport in hand, and said, “I REALLY Don’t know where you’re trying to direct me to to get this copy. Where do I have to go?”, trying my best not to yell.
“Copy.” FUCK! “Building 12.” For fuck’s sake, could she NOT say Building 12 in the first place?
I went out, found building 12, got my copy made. I returned and gave her the copies. “Here you go,” I say calmly, thinking, please don’t say “Copy.” Please don’t say “Copy.”.
She didn’t say “Copy.” She handed me a piece of paper with my test day on it.
FUCK! This isn’t good. Next week. Now I have to talk to her further.
“I’m getting my visa renewed, so the PSB Visa office will have my passport next week.” I tell her in my best broken Chinese. She looked up, grabbed her calendar and pointed to the test date. “No passport okay?”
“Okay.”
Jump ahead a week.
I arrive for my test about 10 minutes early. I saw her again, writing away, non-smiling, looking all… official, I guess. I show her the paper with the date on it, and handed her a slip I got from the visa office that says the passport is in the visa office. “No passport okay?”
“Not okay.” FUCKING HELL! YOU IDIOT! I thought.
“Fine. Schedule me for next week.”
“Okay.”
I hate you.
brain splode! gotta love bureauacracy
Sounds about par for the course.
When I did mine again for my motorbike licence, they didn’t give me a slip of paper, so I had to do everything again.
3 days of my life wasted on that, and I still haven’t finished doing the lessons (I have to be there at 7am, and thats about 3 hours earlier than I normally wake up!)
Back to the DMV in Minhang –
The lady that was doing the Q&A tests was pretty similar. Pointed at a row of terminals, and said sit down, I asked where. She did the same thing again, waved in the general direction.
So I told her in Chinese, look i’m sure you’re very busy, but which exact seat out of the 15 over there Xiao Jie? in a snarky voice. She wasn’t too happy at that point, mostly because all the other people in the office were snickering.
I finished the test in roughly 2 minutes, with 99/100. If I’d failed, I’m sure she would have been happy. As it was, she glowered at me as I graciously accepted my passing score, said thank you for your kind assistance, and walked off.
Ok, it did make me feel good, but not the right thing to do at the traffic department
The other people there were quite nice though, especially the police record people. The old guy there was happy to chat, and enjoyed his job.
Lawrence / http://www.iwantone.cn
I know exactly how you feel! I will actually be taking my test this Saturday here in Xinjiang, but it has taken me a full 3 weeks to get to this point.
For me, they wouldn’t allow just a “copy”…I had to get a notarized copy of my passport, permits, and US driver’s license before they would consider signing me up for the test. Each of those “copies” cost me 100 RMB.
When I came to the DMV with my first set they rejected me because I didn’t use my middle name like it is shown on my passport. Give me a freakin’ break. Then one man told me that once they issued me a Chinese license they would have to take my US license for record. Not gonna happen, buddy.
I’ve come to realize that half of these people don’t even know what they’re talking about, but to say something like “I don’t know” or “Let me check” would just undermine their very important authoritative credibility.
To be fair, she hates you too. Not because of YOU, per se, but just because she’s forced to deal with an evil imperialistic laowai. Plus, she also hates her entire life, but hasn’t the brass ones to do anything to improve it. Plus, she has a tiny bit of power, and must therefore use it. Plus…
But you get the point. Spite and hatred are probably the only emotions she’s ever known. Why expect anything else?
Lawrence, it couldn’t POSSIBLY be the same person, as “Thank you for your kind assistance” is more than 3 words and way too much conversation for my girl.
Josh, the copy thing here is the same, but only 50 RMB once. Take it over to Nanjing Xi Lu here, and they quickly translate it, notarize it, and send you on your merry way. A bit easier here than in other cities, I’ve heard. The taking away of your license though, they can take mine. Mine expires this year anyways, and I’ll just go through AAA to get a new one ready for next time I visit home.
No, *I* was the one who said “thank you for your kind assistance” (rubbing it in some more…).
Today I had another “fun day with bureaucrats”(tm) over at the housing department place for Putuo District.
Did someone say there was a recession on? Hell, no from the state of chaos that reigned over there. Worse than a train station at new year i tells ya, although I did end up with a nice fat check at the end of it.
I was very zen throughout the process, what with being prepared and all.
Ignoring what we were told, we brought anything and everything that might possibly in some miniscule way be remotely relevant, plus multiple photocopies of ID etc.
Sure fooled them, when they thought they had us on the – oh, but you didn’t forget to bring your aunts grandmothers, twin sisters friends neighbours birth certificate did you? and we pull out 3 copies stamped in triplicate.
Now I have to do it all over again next week in a different district. Yay! (or not).
Maybe it IS the same girl then.
My recent visit to register as living in the apartment I’m now in was just as “productive”. I’d avoided it as much as possible, but because my visa was up, I needed to get the paperwork from them saying I’m living there.
Girl looks at my passport and says, you’ve been here 40 days. You MUST register within 24 hours. I told her, “I was in Beijing & Xi’an! I couldn’t be here.
“We know that’s not true.” she says, rather sternly. Fair enough. It’s not. Haven’t been to Beijing OR Xi’an for years. But she did let me off with a signed warning. Not sure what that means, but it’s not my first time getting a written warning. Kind of like High School.
If only she knew it wasn’t 40 days, but more like 400 days.
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Why stay in China if you hate the place so much? Pack your bags, go home and enjoy life. As Americans like to say, ‘love it or leave it.”
Please do tell where I said I hate China so much.
I’m fairly certain that all officials with desks in China are unfriendly and completely unhelpful. I’ve had to misfortune of asking questions about official documents and such and they just give any answer they feel like, which will change hourly (and my wife was usually asking those questions in Chinese for me).
Even the woman who had to get my visa at the university hated dealing with the officials–they kept screwing things up for her after they said it was okay.
“why do you hate China?” is the reflexive fenqing response to any article that doesn’t portray life in China as a harmonious paradise. Here’s another example:
Stuart: Say, the air quality is not so good this morning, comrade Wang.
Wang: Why do you hate China?
At a pinch, it could be irony.
The usual trick to that one, is to book into a hotel for a day.
Pick a Motel 168 or similar, grab the pink slip, and bring that with…
Thats a registration for ya!
This old trick probably won’t work anymore though, they’ve gotten smarter, and have finally hooked up registrations at le popo with the customs people.
I’ll remember that one next time they say I’m “late”.
[...] got my Drivers Licence last Friday! May.27, 2009 in SinoPenn After all that I had to put up with getting it, I finally walked out of Building 8 in Xinzhuang with Drivers Licence in [...]