Driving Rules in Hangzhou

First of all, you are not allowed to drive if you only have International Driver License or Driver license of your home country. You must hold Chinese Driver License to drive in China Mainland.

Clydesdale have service to assist you get Chinese Driver License, contact us for details.

Fine, now you have your Chinese Driver license, how could you get your car in Hangzhou? To get a car is not hard, you just need get your wallet ready, however, to get plate in Hangzhou is hard. Hangzhou runs a system that restricts the monthly distribution for car plates so we only have two ways to get it.

•  Win in plate lottery system: generally a chance less than 1%
  

•  Buy a plate (around 40k rmb)

Local Electronic Car can get plate easily if you meet the requirements (like payment of social welfare).

*Data of this article is valid on March 2021.

1.1 WEEKDAY Peak-hour restriction

A. If your car is Hangzhou Local Plate. (浙A)

Restricted peak hours:

• 7AM – 9AM

• 4:30PM – 6:30PM

Which cars are under restriction:

Hangzhou local plates: Plates starts with 浙A

• Monday Restriction: Last Arabic number on the plate being 1 and 9
  

• Tuesday Restriction: Last Arabic number on the plate being 2 and 8

• Wednesday Restriction: Last Arabic number on the plate being 3 and 7

• Thursday Restriction: Last Arabic number on the plate being 4 and 6

• Friday Restriction: Last Arabic number on the plate being 5 and 0

Restricted area:

* If you last charactor is letter instead of Arabic number, means besides the letter, you can count the last Arabic number before the letter.

B. If your car is Hangzhou Area Plate. (浙A区域牌照)

Question: What is a Hangzhou Area Plate?

Answer:   Due to the difficulty in getting a Hangzhou Local Plate, either by bidding or winning the lottory, the traffic office put forward a new kind of Hangzhou Plate which the 2nd & 5th or 3rd & 4th digit being Letter, like “浙A·5B55B”或“浙A·55BB5”. The way to apply for a Hangzhou Area plate is easier than Hangzhou Local Plate, and it is with less restriction requirements than non-local Hangzhou plates.

Which cars are under restriction:

Hangzhou area plates: Plates in formats like, “浙A·5B55B”或“浙A·55BB5”, it applys to all the plates during all weekdays' Peak hours.

Restricted area:

IMPORTANT:

Hangzhou Area Plate can not apply for "NON-Hangzhou Plate Urgency Exemption".

C. If your car is Non-Local Plate. (非浙A牌照)

Which cars are under restriction:

Non-Hangzhou area plates: Plates in formats like, “沪A·912US” it applys to all the plates during all weekdays' Peak hours.

Restricted area:

1.2 West Lake Scenic Area Restriction

The Hangzhou traffic bureau will put a limitation in the scenic area of West Lake Scenic on weekends and on National Holidays from 8:30 am to  5 pm.

Pattern of restriction:

1. Last Arabic number being Singular (Odd numbers), it will be restricted on weekend of dual (even number) dates (for example, 2nd 4th 6th 8th …of each month )

2. Last Arabic number being Dual (Even numbers), it will be restricted on weekend of singular (odd number) dates (for example, 1st 3rd 5th 7th …of each month )

Restricted area:

From date of issuing of the driver license, each yearly cycle driver is entitled with 12 points and the violation are being deducted in 1, 2, 3, 6, 12 points. If your point is deducted by 12 or more, your license will be invalidated till you participate a 7 day education program and re-take and pass the theory test. Below are some common violations:

• Peak hour violation: 3 points, 100 rmb.
  

• Crossing zebra line if there is people waiting to cross the road: 3 points, 200 rmb

• Red light crossing: 6 points, 200 rmb

• Driving after drinking alcohole: 6 month suspension of licence, 1000-2000 rmb fine [1 second violation will revoke the license and 10 days in custody and 1000-2000 rmb fine]

Click below “HERE” to see the "Ultimate Guide for new arriving expats to China"  - to be updated!