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
Understand the bay crossings before you commit to a commute
The West Coast New Area is separated from the main city by Jiaozhou Bay, crossed by a long bridge and by an undersea tunnel, with a metro line as well. Tolls, traffic and the weather all affect which is usable on a given day. If your job is on one side and your flat on the other, test the journey in bad weather before signing a lease.
In personWho: You
6
Take the fog season seriously
Advection fog off the Yellow Sea, mostly in June and July, can reduce visibility on the coast road and the bay crossings to almost nothing and persist for days. Local drivers plan around it. This is a genuinely different driving hazard from anything in inland China.
OnlineWho: YouJune–July

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

Sea fog is a driving hazard here in a way it is nowhere else in this set of cities.

Qingdao gets thick advection fog when warm moist air moves over the cooler Yellow Sea, concentrated in early summer. It can reduce visibility on the coastal roads and the Jiaozhou Bay crossings to a few metres and sit over the city for days rather than hours. It also delays flights out of Qingdao routinely in June and July. Local drivers check the forecast the way drivers elsewhere check for ice, and a newcomer's instinct to press on is exactly wrong.

Source: community-reported

The bay is the geography that decides where you live.

Jiaozhou Bay separates the old city and Shinan from the West Coast New Area, and crossing it means a long bridge, an undersea tunnel or a metro line. In good conditions the tunnel is quick; in fog, heavy traffic or bad weather it is not. A great many jobs are on the West Coast side and a great many people want to live in Shinan, and the resulting commute is the single most consequential practical decision in Qingdao. Test it in bad weather before you sign anything.

Source: community-reported

No plate quota is an underrated advantage of a second-tier city.

Shanghai auctions plates at around RMB 90,000, Beijing's lottery odds are near 0.3%, and Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Guangzhou all ration. Qingdao has not. For anyone who wants a car — and in a hilly coastal city with a bay to cross, the case is stronger here than in a flat delta city — this removes a five-figure cost entirely. Municipal vehicle policy does change, so confirm the current position.

Source: community-reported

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. Given how many people here have driven in Korea or Japan, it is worth knowing that the Chinese process is the easier of the three. 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