Chinese road signs: what to know before driving in China as a foreigner
Chinese road signs use the same shapes and colours as the signs you already know, and you do not need Chinese to read them. We go through the five families together, with the official drawings, so you know what to expect before you drive.
- Chinese road signs use the same shapes and colours as the signs you know, and the same logic: circles for rules, triangles for warnings, rectangles for directions.
- You do not need Chinese to read them. The shape, the colour and the pictogram carry the meaning, even when there are characters on the sign.
- Place names are the exception, and they are often in Chinese only. Amap gives its directions in English, so you do not have to read them to find your way.
- If you are curious, six characters cover the signs without English: exit, entrance, service area, toll station, speed limit and "prohibited". Optional.
Good news first: Chinese road signs follow the same conventions as the signs in Europe, and the ones that matter on the expressway are in English too. If you learned to drive in North America, the shapes are new, but you get the logic within a few minutes on the road: circles carry the rules, triangles the warnings, and the green rectangles the directions.
Below we go through the five families of signs together, with the official drawings from the national standard and a few examples of each, so you know what they look like before you meet them on the road. What you will notice as you scroll is that in the vast majority of cases you do not need a word of Chinese, even when the sign carries characters, because the picture already says it.
A guide sign on an expressway in Yunnan: green, bilingual, with the road number.
The five families at a glance
| Family | Shape and colour | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warning | Yellow triangle with a black border | Tells you what is ahead: a bend, a slope, animals, a tunnel | |
| Prohibitory | White circle with a red border | Forbids something: no entry, no overtaking, the speed limit | |
| Indicative | Blue circle or blue rectangle | Orders or allows: straight ahead only, keep right, a bus lane, a parking spot | |
| Informational | Green rectangle on expressways, blue on other roads | Guides you: directions, exits, distances, toll gates, service areas | |
| Tourist | Brown rectangle | Points to an attraction or an activity |
Speed limits are in km/h and distances in km (100 km/h is about 62 mph). The system is set by the national standard GB 5768.2-2022, and the drawings on this page are the official ones, taken from the Wikipedia page Road signs in China, where you can see all of them.
Warning signs
A yellow triangle with a black border and a black pictogram. In most of Europe the same triangle has a red border on a white ground, and in North America a warning is a yellow diamond, so the colour or the shape tells you at once that this is a warning and not a rule. China is one of the few countries to use the yellow, black-bordered version. The pictograms are self-explanatory in most cases.
| Bend to the right | Steep descent | Falling rocks | Animals on the road |
| Slippery road | Tunnel ahead | Village ahead | Accident-prone section |
Prohibitory signs
A circle with a red border and a black pictogram, exactly as in Europe. A red diagonal across the pictogram means "not this". The two signs that carry characters are the two whose shape already says it all: the red octagon with 停 (tíng) is a stop sign, and the downward triangle with 让 (ràng) means give way.
| Stop (停, tíng) | Give way (让, ràng) | No entry | No left turn |
| No U-turn | No overtaking | No stopping | No parking |
| No horn | Speed limit 60 km/h | End of the 60 km/h limit | Maximum height 3.5 m |
Four of these deserve a note.
- The speed limit and its end. The number in a red circle is the limit; the same number crossed out ends it. Limits change often, sometimes every few hundred metres near a village, and Amap shows the current limit on screen. The limits by road type, and how the cameras work, are in Driving in China.
- No stopping and no parking. A red cross on blue is no stopping; a single red diagonal on blue is no parking. European drivers know the pair; North American drivers meet it here for the first time. Both are enforced by camera in cities.
- No horn. Common in city centres. On a blind mountain bend, a short tap is normal and expected.
- Restricted plates. In Beijing, Shanghai and a few other cities, signs at the edge of the centre list which plates may enter on which days, in Chinese only. A rental with a local plate is subject to it, and Amap warns you. Our advice for the biggest cities is not to drive in them at all; Driving in China says why.
Indicative signs
Blue, round or rectangular, with a white arrow or pictogram. A blue circle is an order, what Europe calls a mandatory sign: straight ahead only, turn left only, keep right, minimum speed. A blue rectangle tells you what a lane or a place is for: a bus lane, a one-way street, a parking spot. If you drive in Europe you use them every day. If you come from North America, the blue circle replaces the white "ONLY" and "KEEP RIGHT" rectangles, and the "P" is the same P.
| Straight ahead only | Turn left only | Keep right | Roundabout |
| One-way street | Minimum speed 60 km/h | Bus lane | Parking |
Informational signs
This is the family with the most Chinese on it, and the family you need least, because Amap already guides you with the navigation. Green on expressways, blue on other roads. The road number sits in a shield: red for a national road (G plus a number, such as the G318), yellow for a provincial road (S), and green with a small red plate on top for a national expressway (G30, G15).
| National road G105 | Provincial road S203 | National expressway G15 |
On the expressway the signs count you down. An exit, a toll gate and a service area are each announced 2 km and 1 km ahead, then again at the exit itself. An exit (出口, chūkǒu) carries a number as well as the next towns. A toll gate (收费站, shōufèizhàn) is announced with its distance, and a second sign shows the ETC lanes, for cars with the electronic toll device. A service area (服务区, fúwùqū) shows what it has with the icons for parking, fuel and food.
| Exit 48 in 2 km, towards Yunxiao and Changshan | Exit 113 (出口, chūkǒu) | Toll gate with ETC lanes | Service area with parking, fuel and food in 2 km |
| Fuel station | Emergency telephone | Traffic cameras ahead | Tunnel, 2,500 m long |
Place names are the one thing on these signs that is often in Chinese only, and the one thing you do not have to read. Amap (高德地图, the Chinese Google Maps) gives its directions in English: "in 500 metres, take exit 48", "keep left". You follow the arrow and the exit number, and the characters on the sign become a confirmation rather than something to decode. Setting up Amap before you fly is in the phone guide.
Bilingual information road sign on a national road in Sichuan
taking the the 人工(车道) manual lane at a toll gate
Bilingual road sign on an expressway in Shaoxing, Zhejiang.
Tourist signs
Brown with white pictograms, like the brown signs in Europe and North America. They point to an attraction or an activity: a temple, a peak, a hiking trail, a cable car, a campsite. The name of the place is usually in Chinese only, but the pictogram tells you what kind of place it is, and if it is on your route, Amap already knows the way.
| Yunju Temple (云居寺), turn right | Lingshan peak (灵山), 16 km | Hiking trail | Cable car |
| Information | Campsite | Swimming | Skiing |
A tourist sign in Xinjiang, in Chinese and Uyghur. There, the second language on signs is Uyghur rather than English.
Six characters worth knowing (optional)
You do not need them to drive across China. This table is for the curious who would like to learn a little Chinese before the trip: these are the characters that appear on the signs without English.
| Characters | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 出口 | chūkǒu | Exit |
| 入口 | rùkǒu | Entrance |
| 服务区 | fúwùqū | Service area: fuel, toilets, food, chargers |
| 收费站 | shōufèizhàn | Toll station |
| 限速 / 解除限速 | xiànsù / jiěchú xiànsù | Speed limit / end of speed limit |
| 禁止 | jìnzhǐ | Prohibited. Whatever follows it, do not do it. |
Two more that appear often: 人工 (réngōng), the manual lane at a toll gate; and 区间测速 (qūjiān cèsù), section speed check, which means two cameras measure your average speed over the stretch ahead, so slowing down for the camera does not work. Drive at the limit and it never comes up.
Questions we get asked
Do I need to read Chinese to drive in China?
No. The shapes, colours and pictograms are the ones you know, the expressway signs are in English as well, and Amap gives its directions in English. The six characters above cover the signs that have no English on them.
Are the signs in English?
On expressways, almost always. In towns and on country roads, often not. That is where the six characters and Amap come in.
What side of the road does China drive on?
The right, like continental Europe and North America.
Next step
The rules behind the signs, the cameras and the fines: Driving in China. A few words for the road: Simple Chinese phrases.
Where we can help
Every itinerary card we give our clients carries the Chinese name of each hotel and stop, so you can match it to the sign. If a sign on your route puzzles you, send us a photo and we will tell you what it says.
