thai car drive to china

[Tomtomtom69]

Stats? About 800 die every day in accidents there. Not to mention the thousands injured. Those are stats to pay attention to.

My first day in Beijing I saw a cop directing traffic hit and killed. He laid in the road and nobody went to help him. A few days later, I saw an old guy on a bike hit and killed. I was only there for a week and was amazed at the number of accidents I saw. Plus, they drive like crazy. As a pedestrian, it's a free for all.

I did that section from Laos to Kunming several years ago, but by bus. Not too much traffic on the roads, except near the bigger cities. Parts were quite scenic.

I hold a Chinese driver's licence and regularly drive in China when I go there. It's mainly in the big cities that drivers can be quite impatient and aggressive, but interestingly they are not generally very fast drivers. Just clumsy and/or aggressive at times, but I've never had any problems.

I have also driven from Kunming to Dali, Kunming to Mengla (near the Lao border), Kunming to Guangzhou via Nanning (although I shared the driving with another Chinese person, who handled most of the city driving in Nanning and Guangzhou while I drove much of the expressway sections, but that happened to be the first time I had ever driven in China).

Now why is it that Thai roads are considered to be more dangerous than Chinese ones, but everyone here is worried about how bad Chinese roads are? Am I missing something? I have seen very bad accidents on both Chinese and Thai roads, but when it comes time to investigate an accident, I dread being in China because the police there close the affected roads for hours not letting anyone pass. This is very much unlike Thailand, where the police will re-open even the worst accident sites within minutes and have traffic pass by an accident rather than keep them waiting for hours. Vietnam is much like Thailand in that respect, but in the very rare event that a major accident occurs in Australia or the USA, I believe the authorities also block off all traffic from passing through until the police complete their investigations. So China has copied western countries rather than Thailand in this regard.

Since traffic accidents are so common in China, it absolutely sucks when one occurs because you might be forced off a fast expressway onto a god awful winding, 1960s PLA built road that takes about 3-4 times longer to travel along than expressways. Police even 200km away will inform you at the toll gates about what is going on further up the road. Most Chinese roads are absolutely horrible - narrow, bad design (with drainage canals on both sides instead of shoulders) and if you're not careful you'll end up in a ditch. Expressways are good and really the only way to travel long distance in China (although tolls are expensive), but that generally keeps traffic volume down. Many Chinese travel by bus, train or plane rather than drive long distance even if they have a car. The tolls can be astronomically high - like the equivalent of 200 US dollars for a trip from Beijing to Shanghai (about 1300km) for example. By comparison, a trip of similar distance from say Hat Yai to Nakorn Sawan costs exactly 0 dollars [baht] in tolls.

Edited August 17, 2015 by Tomtomtom69

[Tomtomtom69]

And BTW edh69, Chinese plated vehicles travelling outside of China are supposed to display a "CN" nationality sticker. Some of them do, but as anyone familiar with driving in neighboring countries should be aware, no country in the region is very strict about this. I have seen plenty of Thai cars travelling in Laos without the "T" sticker, but most have it. Some Thai drivers have the English international plates displayed, but most don't bother. Lao people can read Thai anyway, so there's no reason to switch your plates there, but Cambodia, Myanmar and other countries are different. However, currently only Malaysia requires you to display a translation of your Thai number plate, but this needs to be in the form of a white on black sticker that is the English translation of your Thai number plate. Malaysia also doesn't require the "T" sticker so most Thai cars travelling there won't have the "T" sticker displayed unless they have also been to Laos or Cambodia.

I just came back from Cambodia and I didn't bother bringing the international plates along and just displayed my normal Thai plates, just like most Thai vehicles I saw driving inside Cambodia. I also saw 1 Lao vehicle yesterday and it also just displayed it's normal Lao plates. It did have a "LAO" nationality sticker though.

Edited August 17, 2015 by Tomtomtom69

[feisibuke]

Full drive-lapse from Bangkok to Yunnan, China:

Edited October 24, 2015 by feisibuke

[CLW]

I heard from some Thai friends there are negotiations going on to allow Thai vehicles entering China for a period of about 15 days. Anyone can confirm?

[cumgranosalum]

I heard from some Thai friends there are negotiations going on to allow Thai vehicles entering China for a period of about 15 days. Anyone can confirm?

Can't confirm, but that would be a fantastic development

[Tomtomtom69]

I heard from some Thai friends there are negotiations going on to allow Thai vehicles entering China for a period of about 15 days. Anyone can confirm?

Can't confirm, but that would be a fantastic development

That;s interesting because just 2 days ago a Thai business partner who speaks fluent Chinese and is involved in trade with China confirmed that Thai registered trucks have been allowed to drive up as far as Chengdu and this has only been allowed recently, starting around 3-4 months or so. It would be great if private vehicles were also included, and given the good relationship between Thailand and China and the fact that private Chinese vehicles have been allowed into Thailand for a few years now I wouldn't be surprised if some reciprocity would finally be on the cards.

[JaseTheBass]

Stats mean nothing until they are interpreted and simple "A therefore B" is just daft as we usually have no idea how they were complied and even what percentage mileage/car

I guess from you post you are saying that the roads of China are dangerous - well statistically speaking they don't come near to Thailand.......

1) Stats are meaningless? Where else do you get your numbers from? Stats are the beginning. Without them, it's just a guess.

2) Lived in China for 10 years and 5 so far in Thailand. Thailand is a breath of sanity compared to drivers in China. The only reason China's stats look better is that they lie, and they don't have nearly the same percentage of scooters. On a per km in a 4 wheel vehicle, Thailand is much safer.

There's been some studies done comparing the fatalities listed by the highway people in China vs the fatalities listed by the hospitals, and the highway people are lying through their teeth. They were off by a huge factor. But the guys that did that study probably got banged up for revealing state secrets.

The Thai stats are skewed favourably too. I dread to think what the real numbers are.

[cumgranosalum]

Stats mean nothing until they are interpreted and simple "A therefore B" is just daft as we usually have no idea how they were complied and even what percentage mileage/car

I guess from you post you are saying that the roads of China are dangerous - well statistically speaking they don't come near to Thailand.......

1) Stats are meaningless? Where else do you get your numbers from? Stats are the beginning. Without them, it's just a guess.

2) Lived in China for 10 years and 5 so far in Thailand. Thailand is a breath of sanity compared to drivers in China. The only reason China's stats look better is that they lie, and they don't have nearly the same percentage of scooters. On a per km in a 4 wheel vehicle, Thailand is much safer.

There's been some studies done comparing the fatalities listed by the highway people in China vs the fatalities listed by the hospitals, and the highway people are lying through their teeth. They were off by a huge factor. But the guys that did that study probably got banged up for revealing state secrets.

The Thai stats are skewed favourably too. I dread to think what the real numbers are.

Some people are very naive when it comes to numbers and stats no matter where they come from and how they are interpreted.

[craigt3365]

Stats mean nothing until they are interpreted and simple "A therefore B" is just daft as we usually have no idea how they were complied and even what percentage mileage/car

I guess from you post you are saying that the roads of China are dangerous - well statistically speaking they don't come near to Thailand.......

1) Stats are meaningless? Where else do you get your numbers from? Stats are the beginning. Without them, it's just a guess.

2) Lived in China for 10 years and 5 so far in Thailand. Thailand is a breath of sanity compared to drivers in China. The only reason China's stats look better is that they lie, and they don't have nearly the same percentage of scooters. On a per km in a 4 wheel vehicle, Thailand is much safer.

There's been some studies done comparing the fatalities listed by the highway people in China vs the fatalities listed by the hospitals, and the highway people are lying through their teeth. They were off by a huge factor. But the guys that did that study probably got banged up for revealing state secrets.

The Thai stats are skewed favourably too. I dread to think what the real numbers are.

There was an article in the Bangkok Post about this recently. Complaining how the stats were created, and how different government agencies create these numbers differently. The UN says the numbers are way too low in both China and Thailand.

[Johnnyngai]

On ‎8‎/‎11‎/‎2015 at 8:54 PM, craigt3365 said:

I know it can be done as I've read about people who have done it. One was relatively famous and the government did a special deal for him. From what I've read, it's very difficult and may require a ride along "guide".

Plus, driving in China is insane. They are really bad drivers.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Driving_in_China

According to Chinese statistics [2], China has about 100,000 traffic deaths a year, more than twice the number in United States even though the US has more than four times as many cars [3], [4]. According to the World Health Organisation [5] "In China, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people between 15 and 45" and the annual Chinese traffic death toll is near 250,000 [6].

To a newcomer, Chinese traffic appears to have no rules or, if there are rules, it appears they are neither followed nor enforced. In reality, of course, there are rules; they do generally manage to avoid hitting each other. However, Chinese rules are very different from what most travellers are used to. To Western eyes, appallingly bad driving is the norm, and insane or suicidal behaviour behind the wheel is fairly common.

"driving in China is insane. They are really bad drivers."    All third world drivers are the same.  Life is cheap in all third world countries.