China’s car market is rapidly expanding and cars have become major status symbols. For customers, this growth means a wide selection and increasingly competitive prices. Even so, most expats opt to lease a car with a driver due to the expenses and long bureaucratic process involved in buying.

A driver can be hired to work for one day only, or work on a daily basis and be paid monthly for their services. Employing a full-time driver is affordable, and will cost somewhere around ¥2,500 per month (plus overtime), whereas a day trip around the city with a driver will cost more. A personal driver can charge around ¥600-¥700 for eight hours in the city. This cost increases if the driver goes beyond the city borders.
Driving is on the right side of the road with automatic left-hand drive cars. Road signs are in Chinese characters, plus a mix of English and Pinyin.­­­­