Many of you are now well aware of the ongoing saga of getting our vehicles into China. We were supposed to get in on August 27th, but were then informed that we would have to wait for an official to return from a business trip before crossing the border. As luck would have it, our contact has indicated that it will be possible for us to enter on the 27th after all. Obviously, however, there are some strings attached. We have to leave the Toyotas in a secure government warehouse until the official returns and has time to sign and stamp our paperwork. Additionally, we may have to pay a parking fee which, according to our contact, might be "quite expensive." Hopefully this will only be for a few days.
In the meantime, we will have those few days to take care of some other "requirements" that we would have had to complete anyway. These requirements include going to the provincial office to apply for our Chinese number plates for each vehicle (a formality), apply for and take photographs for our Chinese driver’s licenses (another formality) and go to a government doctor to get a physical examination. Yes friends, you heard me correctly. Steve and I both have to pass a physical in order to complete the process necessary to drive the Thundra and Little Pepe on Chinese soil. I am not quite sure what the physical will entail, but the fact that we have to get one in the first place definitely falls into the category of being totally random. Assuming all goes well and Steve and I are not terminally ill, have epilepsy or some other unsuitable condition that will preclude us from driving, we will then proceed to take some sort of "test" to actually be issued the license itself. Again, this is still all pretty vague and we will know more once we are there, but it seems as we have managed to overcome a few more obstacles and jump through a few more hoops enabling us to be back on schedule… at least until the next e-mail from our contact.
