Chinese driving license

Studying the Fuzhou and Chinese traffic regulations took up most of my free time, last week. If you want to drive in China, you will have to get the Chinese driving license. This requires doing a test regarding knowledge about traffic regulations, just like the locals have to do. The usual practical exam is not required if you show a valid driving license from your home country.
Before, it was an easy job for the foreigners. As the tests were only available in Chinese, they were allowed to bring an 'assistent' who could read Chinese. So, practically, this assistent would do the test and the foreigners would just sit there. Sadly though, for me, an English test is available now as well. So, I was not allowed to bring an assitent and had to do the test myself.

Upon registration (which takes two visits: one for a 'physical test' (nothing more than distinguishing some numbers on a paper with coloured dots), and one for making an electronic fingerprint) you get a booklet with 776 questions in English, and on the day of the test, a computer will ask 100 of these, randomly selected. It was quite a lot of work to study all these questions!! Most of the general rules were the same as in Europe, but also many are different, like the rules on speed and vehicle dimension limits. And then there is a section with 'basic vehicle knowledge' that contains questions that are even hard to answer by car mechanics.
There are also funny questions, like this one:

'-On summer nights pay attention to both sides of the road, the bank, and ------ enjoying the cool on the bridge, to avoid causing injury.
a. vehicles
b. people at repose
c. sundries'

or this one:
'In case the car falls into water out of expectation, ------ and flee for life.
a. open the door and leap out
b. open the door and swim out after the car stands still
c. kick off the glass window and swif out after the car stands still'

Another compicating factor is that the English is often far from correct and at places hardly understandable. Luckily, the computer test is a 1:1 copy of the questions in the book, so if you just learn which answer belongs to which question, all is fine.

The event itself was quite typical for China, I felt. First of all, there were many many people sitting in the waiting area before the beginning of the test, studying and discussing while smoking and spitting on the floor. I took a snapshot with my phone camera while waiting. About ten minutes after the scheduled time, a policeman announced that the test would soon start, that everyone was requested to remain seated, just like in an airplane after landing, until your name was called. And, just like in an airplane after landing, everyone jumped up immediately and ran to the door that gave access to the computer room. This caused some commotion and it needed some shouting and threatening (I assume) by the policeman to get most of the participants seated again for a minute or so.
Once in the computer room, with at least a hundred PCs, the whole thing went very smoothly. The PCs were ready to be used. I only had to put my finger on the fingerprint scanner for identification, and the correct (English) test appeared. I filled out the test, the result appeared immediately, I could leave the room after signing the already printed copy of the results. Very well implemented!!

Again, an interesting experience. And luckily for me, also a good experience, as I passed the test! In one week I can pick up my Chinese driving license and participate in Fuzhou's traffic jungle.