How to rent a car in China as a foreigner

Renting a car in China is a lot simpler than you might think. The rental industry here is large, mature and well organised. It mainly serves Chinese customers, though, so from the outside it feels unfamiliar, and there is not much guidance in English. That is why we made the video below. This page follows the video, and then adds the booking details and what to bring on pick-up day.

The one thing you need before any counter gives you a car is the temporary driving permit, which has its own guide.

Should I rent from an international brand or a local one?

The international brands are the names you already know: Hertz, Avis, Europcar and others. The good side is easy to see. You book on a website you already use, the car models are the ones you recognise, and the invoice is easy to hand in if your company pays for the trip. The other side is just as easy to see. They have few locations, almost all of them in the biggest cities, which people in China call the tier-one cities. And their prices are international rates with a service premium on top.

The local brands are eHi (一嗨租车), CAR Inc. (神州租车) and others. Their biggest advantage is how many branches they have: Hertz has about 100 locations in mainland China, while eHi has roughly 10,000. They are also cheaper. They buy their cars locally and they compete hard with each other, so they are typically about 60 percent cheaper than the international brands.

Their one real downside is that foreign visitors have not heard of them, and that little is written about them in English.

So how do you choose? It comes down to three situations:

• A short business trip in a tier-one city: an international brand such as Hertz is the easy choice, at a premium price. In our experience Hertz gives solid service in China, and its booking is the smoothest among the international brands.
• Smaller cities, or a long road trip: a local brand.
• A tier-one city, but the price matters to you: a local brand is worth considering too.

How big is the price difference?

For our video, in 2026, we compared Hertz and eHi for the same dates, the same pick-up place and ten days of rental.

In these two examples Hertz costs about three times as much as eHi, and the Hertz price has basic insurance only, while the eHi price includes the standard full damage waiver. We converted with the same rates as our cost guide: ¥1 = 0.149 USD = 0.130 EUR, rounded.

What the whole rental adds up to, with insurance, tolls and fuel, is in What does it cost to rent a car in China?

Which local company should I choose?

There are quite a few rental companies in China, but two are enough to look at: CAR Inc. and eHi, the top two by market share. They have a lot in common. Both have a solid reputation, branches across the country and many car models to choose from, and their cars are typically one to two years old. Both allow one-way rentals, so you can pick the car up in one city and return it in another. And, most important for a visitor, both let you register with a passport and pay with an international credit card.

For a foreign visitor, eHi is the easier one today. It has an English website, a full English app and an English-speaking hotline, and all you need to book is your passport and your phone number from home. CAR Inc. has started an English website too, but so far it only takes bookings for rentals in Beijing. You can also download the full CAR Inc. app and read it with a screen translator, which works, but not as smoothly as eHi yet.

eHi is also the company we use all the time ourselves.

• English website: en.1hai.cn
• Chinese website, where you download the app: www.1hai.cn

Should I book on the website or in the app?

You can book on eHi's English website or in the eHi app, and we recommend the app, for three reasons. It shows the insurance options and the deposit rules, which the English website does not show in full, so without the app you would sort them out and pay for them at the counter. It has a fuller and more current list of cars. And you need it later anyway, because some steps around pick-up, such as uploading your temporary driving permit and checking your order, are done in the app or in eHi's mini program inside WeChat or Alipay.

eHi app in English

What do I need before I book?

Three things:

1. A phone with an active number. Your number from home is fine.
2. Your passport.
3. Your itinerary, which means you know where and when you pick up and return the car.

If you book on the English website and not in the app, you also need an email address.

Two more things are worth doing before you fly. Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay with a credit card in your own name linked, because at eHi the payment and the deposit go through them and not through a card machine, and you will pay for fuel and parking with them too; the phone, payments and maps guide has the setup. And decide when you will get the temporary driving permit after you land, because the counter asks for it before it releases the car.

How do I book, step by step?

The five steps are very close to booking with any international brand.

1. Sign up and verify your account. Use the name of the person who will drive, because eHi needs the rental to be in the driver's own name.
2. Choose the pick-up and drop-off city and your dates. It is best to book one to two months ahead, and earlier if your trip touches the big Chinese holidays: Chinese New Year, the first days of May and the first week of October.
3. Select the branches for pick-up and return: the airport branch, or a branch near your hotel in the city where your trip starts.
4. Pick a car class that suits your trip.
5. Review the details and confirm. You can cancel or rebook later for free.

What happens on pick-up day?

Get the temporary driving permit first; the permit guide has the steps and the offices. Then:

1. In the app, before you go: upload your temporary driving permit.
2. On your phone: check that the WeChat account linked to the phone number you booked with is active, and that WeChat Pay works with a credit card in your own name. The same goes for Alipay, if you use that.
3. At the counter, show three documents: your temporary driving permit, your original driving licence and your passport.
4. Before you drive off: As with a rental car anywhere, walk around the car and take your own photos of every side, the wheels, the windscreen, and the dashboard with the fuel level and the mileage.

eHi store at Chengdu Tianfu International Airport

How do I return the car?

Return the car at the branch on your booking, with the same fuel or charge level as at pick-up, and walk around the car with the agent before you sign the clearance. It takes as little as a few minutes if everything looks good.

When the deposit comes back is in the cost guide.

Questions we get asked

Next step

With the car booked, the next thing to get ready is your phone, because the payments, the map and the eHi app all run on it.

GuideGetting your phone ready for a China road trip: payment, maps and eSIMFour things to set up at home: Alipay and WeChat with your card linked, an eSIM made for mainland China, Amap Global for navigation, and a translation app. Here is the checklist we use every time we go on a road trip.Read the guide · 7 min read

Where we can help

The rental has to be in the driver's own name, so we cannot book the car for you. If you book your trip with us, we guide you through the car booking step by step, and we stay with you from the moment you pick up the car until you hand back the keys.