BEIJING, May 22, 2012 (City Weekend) — To rent a vehicle in Beijing, you’ll need a Chinese driver’s license, a passport, a valid visa and a major credit card and copies of all. Assemble all of this, and your life on the open road begins.
For a deposit of ¥10,000, payable by credit card, any car in the Hertz rental fleet can be yours. Whether booking online or over the phone, the process is simple as long as you have the necessary documents. Insurance is included in the price of the rental, which runs from ¥230 per day for a Peugeot 207 1.6AT to ¥1,090 per day for an Audi A6. Ask about any deals they may be offering before you rent.
The Avis website and web-booking process kind of ground our gears, but their English-speaking telephone operators are fantastic, which will come in handy in terms of roadside or accident assistance. Avis allows drivers to return a car to an Avis outlet in a different city for a surcharge—¥500 to pick up a car in Beijing and return it in Shanghai. A minimum ¥5,000 deposit is required to rent, insurance included. Day rentals start at ¥815 for a Volkswagen Santana and go up to ¥1,200 for a GM Buick Regal.
Zuche will let you rent a car in Beijing and drop it off in any one of its locations in 66 Chinese cities for a surcharge. Insurance is not included and will cost an extra ¥20-¥110 per day. Deductible insurance is also available for ¥40 a day. Web booking is only available in Chinese, but that’s a small price to pay to enjoy their unlimited mileage option or have them drop the car off and pick it up from any location you specify. Rental rates are great—starting at ¥49 per day for a Citroen Elysee or up to ¥999 for an Audi A6.
Beijing Universal Auto Rental Co., Ltd. offers decent rates on larger vehicles. A 50-seat passenger bus costs ¥800 for four hours and 50km, or ¥1,500 for eight hours and 100km. Vehicles are subject to hourly and mileage late fees of ¥50 per hour and ¥5 per km over.
For those with fantasies of circling around the Third Ring Road with the top down, none of these outlets offer convertibles.
It's Mikala! 