China does road signage really well. In the big cities, it’s posted in Mandarin and English, and it’s much clearer than in Quebec. On a number of occasions, we witnessed taxis, buses, cars, cyclists and motor bikers violate the law—sometimes while we were passengers.

Interestingly, the Chinese seem unruffled when heading the wrong way down a one-way street. Or when passing through a red light. Or when pulling a U-turn on the highway. Adding to the chaos (or what seemed like chaos to our North American eyes), cars cut each other off and no one pays any attention to the lines painted on the road. And yet, we didn’t see a single accident.

There are two aspects of Chinese signage that we found interesting: the traffic lights and the way the speed limit is displayed.

Here you can see that there are red lights and green lights. But notice that instead of an amber light, there’s a countdown.

The speed limit is displayed directly on the road surface. The first number is the minimum speed and the second one is the maximum.