Driving From Bangkok To China!

[mortenaa]

Hey guys!

I'm playing with the thought about doing a car trip from Bangkok to Kunming/China on the Kunming-Bangkok Expressway.

I have a Thai registered car and a Thai driving license. I haven't gathered much information yet, but have I read stories about people driving from Europe to Thailand, so hopefully driving to China would be like "piece of a cake"??

Nevertheless I believe such a trip would acquire quite a lot of paperwork. Permit and licenses. Insurance. And so on..

Does any of you guys have any experience crossing borders with a Thai-registered car?

[WarpSpeed]

Many problems with this still. I researched it myself but besides poor road quality there is not really a route that takes you there directly...............Yet.................. There is future plans for a highway straight though and mostly to be paid for by China as I understand and permits, insurance coverage, licensing, etc. along the way, but hey if none of that deters you're adventure seeking give it a go just don't expect it to be ANYTHING like traveling through Europe or near as much of a "cinch" in spite of the decreased distance.

[impulse]

If you do figure it out, please post back. That's something I'd love to try.

[Tomtomtom69]

The overall road quality along this entire route is actually fairly decent. I've traveled on 98% of this road between Bangkok and Kunming and can report the following: Bangkok to Chiang Khong, Chiang Rai province: fairly good, although it would be better if the Thais could follow through on their 10-year old promise to build a proper expressway from Bangkok at least up to Chiang Mai via Lampang, where you would continue north on the existing 4-lane highway up to Chiang Rai. From there, drive up to Chan district about half way up to Mae Sai, turn right towards Chiang Saen where you'll end up on a very good 8-lane highway to Chiang Saen after which the last 55km to Chiang Khong is a bit of a shocker but that section is slated for upgrading soon. Alternatively, driving from Lampang via Phayao and Phu Sang to Thoeng and then Chiang Khong is an alternative but it's mostly single lane in each direction.

Next month the bridge should open and once over in Laos you'll be in Huay Xai where you will leave town on an excellent quality two-lane road built jointly by the Thais and the Chinese that takes you to Luang Nam Tha in around 2.5 hours over a distance of 200km, however, there are many twists and turns along the way. Once in Luang Nam Tha you continue along another decent road to Na Tuey where you join an excellent quality Chinese built road for the final 18km to the Chinese border town of Boten. Overall distance between the Thai and Chinese borders is thus 250km. Once in China, the road from Mohan to Jinghong (Chiang Rung) via Mengla (Muang La) is decent and a combination of 2 and 4 lanes (though mostly 2 wide lanes with some tunnels) but once you're near Jinghong an expressway gets you all the way to Kunming - note that this expressway will soon be finished all the way to the China/Lao border.

Getting a Lao car across at least to Jinghong and the whole of Sipsongbanna is no problem, I've heard the same for Thai cars but I've never seen even a single Thai car inside that part of Yunnan, only Lao ones. However, a travel agency should be able to help you. I think it's a bit unfair that the Chinese make driving foreign registered vehicles into their country so much harder than the other way round, it should really be reciprocal. The fact remains that Chinese registered cars can easily enter Thailand and freely travel wherever they want, though in practice they rarely drive south of Chiang Mai. However, I have seen one Chinese car driving northbound just south of Nakorn Sawan and another driving northbound near Kampaeng Phet. Neither driver was required to have a Thai guide or travel in a convoy but most Thai vehicles entering China do exactly that - they travel in convoys and have a Chinese guide. Additionally, a temporary Chinese driver's license would also be required although the agency in charge of your trip would be easily able to obtain one for you. Alternatively, you can easily obtain a 6-year Chinese driver's license in Kunming or any other major Chinese city, but you'll need to pass the written computer test first and obtain 90% or more to pass.

Insurance would be the least of your problems as once you're across the border you can easily purchase it there at low cost. Europcar in Vientiane, Laos specializes in cross border travel and you can easily drive to Sipsongbanna with their cars. No need for a guide, permit, convoy or any other complicated paperwork other than the documents they provide you with and either a Chinese driver's license or an international driver's license, which seems to be valid for driving in that region only. There is a checkpoint just north of Jinghong so if you wanted to drive up to Kunming you'd need permission in the form of a letter that allows you to pass through the checkpoint.