beijing - can I drive myself?

I will be in Beijing tomorrow (3/7/09) and have been offerred use of a friends car for the weekend. Can we navigate driving by ourselves? I think Jinshaling/Simitai on Sunday and Temple of Heaven Saturday afternoon. Dear hubby will be in meetings Mon and Tues so I%26#39;ll go to downtown sites those days.

How much will hotel parking cost (Sheraton Beijing)? I could not find it on their webpage.

Would we be better off hiring a driver?

Thanks in advance for all the posts/info and for your prompt reply!

beijing - can I drive myself?

by the way - my husband and I are in Seoul now and will arrive in Beijing at 10:30am Saturday. We are seasoned travelers and have driven in crazy places like Rome before. Dear hubby has already been to the Wall and all sites in Beijing on previous trips. This is my first time. Thanks again for any advice!

beijing - can I drive myself?

A western license is not valid in China. And believe me if it was you do not want to drive yourself in Beijing.

See 鈥logspot.com/2007/06/beijing-traffic-lesson鈥?/a> for how it works there :-)

Foreign travellers are not allowed to self-drive in China, your international license isn%26#39;t valid here.

If your friends are expats in Beijing, perhaps their vehicle already comes with a driver?

Besides not being allowed, if you have never been in Beijing you will find that just crossing the street is challenging.

BePu: Hahaha that was hilarious!!

Richard, it%26#39;s not funny it%26#39;s true hehe. LOL Bepu. Unfortunately when people get their licenses they think the are ready for the Shanghai Grand Prix %26amp; use the streets of Beijing to practice on - they are all out to get you.

LOL Annie, I totally agree. :)

Yeah! How accurate!!! The problem in this diagram is that A is not aggressive enough. Actually this scenario is pretty good for pedestrians who can walk around the nearly stopped cars.

bepu - that was hilarious and so true! But I%26#39;m not entirely convinced about it being good for pedestrians! I%26#39;ve walked to work for the past 2 years, crossing 2 major roads each day ( and several smaller ones) and I%26#39;m still paranoid about being run over. Not by cars and buses... but by motorised bikes pretending to be regular bicycles!