The physical condition of roads and road maintenance varies greatly from municipality to municipality. WARNING to drivers and cyclists: it is not uncommon to find an open man hole cover or large crevice on a newly paved or otherwise smooth road.
Turning off of main roads may require technical off-road driving skills and equipment.
Tips for the the Road Conditions:
The City Roads
In major city roads traffic is often congested, even on the myriad of city ring roads (except those on the outer fringes of the city). Beijing comes in at the worst (comparatively), despite five ring roads and nine arterial expressways. Shanghai ranks relatively better, with elevated expressways and tunnels.
The congestion is far more complex than that in Western countries. Bicycles swarm everywhere. In many areas, there are also lots of motorcycles. In the smaller cities, anything from tractors to bullock carts may turn up.
The China National Highways
Beijing municipality is the only administrative unit where tolls are not charged for China National Highways. Elsewhere, though, these are toll roads on the national, and sometimes on the provincial level as well.
G-level (national) China National Highways are a pleasure to drive on. The speed limit is 80 km/h (50 mph) but cars often zip at speeds over 100 km/h (62 mph), thanks to the relative absence of speed detection cameras.
S-level (provincial) highways may be less smooth to drive on. Unlike national highways, sometimes there is no central reservation or road separation, and you may be limited to one lane per direction.
X-level (county) highways are not necessarily the worst to drive on, but they are challenging. More challenging are township-level highways. Some of these roads may be in areas officially cordoned off to the visiting foreigner.
The Expressways
Expressways and express routes in China are a godsend, with traffic signs in both English and Chinese, emergency facilities, service areas, sufficient filling stations, plenty of exits, high speed limits, and the relative lack of traffic jams.
Although in English, both express routes and expressways are referred to as "expressways", their Chinese counterparts are named differently. "Express routes" are written"kuai su gong road" , whereas expressways are written as "gao su gong road". The idea is that express routes liaise inside of cities and larger municipalities, whereas expressways do the national work, liaising from one centre to another.
Express routes have lower speed limits than expressways. In Beijing, a few expressways have speed limits below express routes: these are the Jingjintang Expressway (Beijing segment) and the Jingha Expressway (Beijing segment). They are clocked at 90 km/h (56 mph).
