China's road rules are not exotic. Traffic keeps right, signs follow an internationally legible symbol grammar, and the speed limits sit within the ordinary range. What surprises visitors is the density of the enforcement, the amount of the road given over to electric two-wheelers, and a handful of specific rules that differ from what they are used to.
The sign system: GB 5768
Chinese road signs are governed by the national standard GB 5768, Road traffic signs and markings. Part 2 covers signs. The 2009 edition (GB 5768.2-2009, issued 25 May 2009, in force 1 July 2009) was replaced by GB 5768.2-2022, issued 15 March 2022 and in force from 1 October 2022.
The colour and shape grammar is consistent, and worth learning before the first drive:
| Category | Chinese | Shape | Colour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warning | 警告标志 | Equilateral triangle, point up | Yellow ground, black border and symbol |
| Prohibition | 禁令标志 | Circle | White ground, red ring, black or red symbol |
| Mandatory instruction | 指示标志 | Circle, square or rectangle | Blue ground, white symbol |
| Direction, expressway | 指路标志 | Rectangle | Green ground, white text |
| Direction, all other roads | 指路标志 | Rectangle | Blue ground, white text |
| Tourist area | 旅游区标志 | Rectangle | Brown ground, white text and symbol |
The green-versus-blue rule is the one that orients a driver fastest: green means you are on an expressway or urban expressway; blue means you are not. It is the reverse of the British convention and the same as the American one.
Bilingual signing. Expressway direction signs and signs in the large cities generally show the place name in Chinese and again in pinyin or English. This is a matter of local practice rather than a nationwide requirement, and it thins out quickly outside the major corridors. Warning and prohibition signs carry symbols and, when text is used, Chinese only.
Speed limits
Article 42 of the Road Traffic Safety Law makes the posted sign the operative limit, and Article 67 caps expressway signage at 120 km/h. Beneath that, the State Council's implementing regulations set default limits by road type. In broad terms:
| Road type | Typical limit |
|---|---|
| Expressway (高速公路) | 120 km/h maximum, 60 km/h minimum |
| Urban expressway | around 80 km/h, sometimes 100 |
| National highway, non-expressway | commonly 80 km/h |
| City street with a continuous centre line | around 70 km/h |
| Other city streets | 50 to 60 km/h |
| Single lane in each direction, no centre line | 30 km/h |
Multi-lane expressways also carry lane minimums — a slow car in the left-hand lane is an offence, not merely bad manners. Buses, trucks, school buses and vehicles carrying dangerous goods have lower limits than cars on the same road, and limits drop sharply in low visibility.
Because the numbers vary by lane, by vehicle class and by weather, and because they change often, the posted sign is always the authority. We were unable to fetch the current text of the implementing regulations directly; the road-type figures above should be read as the general pattern rather than as a quotation.
Tolls and ETC
China's expressway network reached about 199,000 km at the close of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, according to a Ministry of Transport figure reported in July 2026 — the largest in the world, and almost entirely tolled.
Tolls are distance-based. You pass an entry gantry, and the exit gantry calculates the charge. Almost all traffic uses ETC — an electronic transponder mounted on the windscreen, linked to a bank account or wallet — which allows the car to pass at speed. The Ministry of Transport pushed ETC hard from 2019, offering free installation, online activation, and a toll discount of at least 5% for ETC users, and removing the provincial-boundary toll plazas that used to cause queues. Cash lanes still exist but are few, slow, and increasingly the exception.
Rental cars normally come with an ETC device fitted. If yours does not, plan for cash lanes and the delay they bring.
The rules that catch visitors out
Right turn on red. At a plain circular red light, a right turn is generally permitted after stopping and giving way, unless a sign forbids it. It is not permitted against a red right-turn arrow: where the signal shows arrows rather than a disc, the arrow governs absolutely. Even where the turn is allowed, pedestrians and cyclists crossing on their green have priority.
礼让行人. The phrase 礼让行人 (lǐràng xíngrén, "LEE-rahng SHING-run") — "yield courteously to pedestrians" — is painted on approaches to crossings all over China. It restates Article 47 of the Road Traffic Safety Law: a driver must slow down when passing a pedestrian crossing, and must stop and give way when pedestrians are on it. On roads without signals, drivers must give way to people crossing. Cities enforce this with dedicated cameras that photograph a vehicle failing to stop, and the penalty is a fine plus demerit points. It is one of the most heavily enforced rules in urban China and a genuine change from how the same junctions behaved fifteen years ago.
Cameras, everywhere. Speed cameras, red-light cameras, lane-discipline cameras, crossing cameras and mobile enforcement are ubiquitous, and violations are matched to the plate automatically. Notice arrives through the 交管12123 app rather than in the post. Offences carry money penalties and demerit points against the driver's licence, which runs a 12-point cycle: reach twelve within twelve months and the licence is held until the driver completes retraining and re-sits the theory exam. Drink-driving alone costs all twelve.
Driving restrictions. Many cities ban some cars from some roads on some days. Beijing rotates a tail-number ban inside the Fifth Ring Road on weekdays from 07:00 to 20:00, with the digit pairings changing quarterly and letter-ending plates treated as zero. Other cities run their own schemes with their own hours and boundaries, and green new energy plates are often exempt. Check the current municipal notice for the specific city; a rental company will usually tell you, but the fine lands on the driver.
Horns. Using the horn is normal on open roads and prohibited in signed no-horn zones, which cover large parts of central Shanghai and other city centres. The penalty is typically a fine of around ¥100 without points. Enforcement in the big cities now uses acoustic camera systems that locate the offending vehicle.
Electric two-wheelers, and the lane they use
The single biggest difference between a Chinese city street and a European or American one is the volume of electric two-wheelers. They have their own lane, marked and often physically separated, and they use it in both directions regardless of the marked flow. A driver turning across a bike lane must expect traffic from either side.
The national standard for them, GB 17761-2024, was released on 31 December 2024 and took effect on 1 September 2025. It caps design speed at 25 km/h, requires a power cut-off once that speed is exceeded, and bans the modification interfaces that let owners derestrict older machines. Cities layer their own rules on top: Beijing's revised regulations on the administration of non-motor vehicles took effect on 1 May 2026, tightening registration, helmet and parking requirements, and standing scooters and self-balancing vehicles remain barred from the road.
For a pedestrian or a driver, the practical rule is the same: the bike lane is a live traffic lane carrying quiet, quick vehicles, and it is where most of the near-misses happen.