Chinese roads, particularly in cities, often have cycle lanes, either separated from the outermost vehicle lane by a solid white line, or by a curbed planted zone. When cycle lanes (non-motorized vehicle lanes) are present you should use them. If you are biking slowly then they are a good environment.

However, often cycle lanes will be blocked by parked cars and street vendors, or clogged by slow moving or maneuvering vehicles. In this case using the road is preferable, particularly if your bike is travelling faster than some of the mopeds, motorbikes and three-wheelers on the road. You could perhaps justify this on the basis that the cycle lane is full to capacity. When the roads of Guilin are full to capacity during rush hour cars etc. take to the cycle lanes, so it is just a case of using the road space to full capacity.

As driving is on the right in China, a right turn is simple, and is allowed even when a red light is displayed. However, when using a cycle lane and going straight across a junction, beware of vehicles on the adjacent road turning right and “stealing the road” or “forcing their way” as the Chinese term it. This is where the cycle lane system seems to be poorly thought through.

Turning left is far more problematic. Vehicles turning left should give way to vehicles traveling straight in the oncoming lane and should wait for a safe gap in the traffic before entering the right hand side of the road to the left. However, common practice in China is to move into the opposing traffic lane if there is any sort of gap in the traffic in preparation for a left turn, then enters the road to the left on its left hand side before moving over to the right. This practice means that vehicles cutting corners take the most direct route that the road allows, but cause huge inconvenience to other road users.

When approaching any junction, be aware of vehicles coming towards you on the wrong side of the road or from unexpected directions!

Roundabouts are not explained in Chinese driving test material, apart from that drivers on the roundabout should give way to vehicles entering without priority. So roundabouts have the ridiculously inefficient situation where only the vehicle that gets there first has priority and then only if it is bigger or travelling faster or with more "purpose". Take care. Keeping to the outside of the roundabout is recommended.

At junctions with traffic lights it would be hoped that vehicles would stop for the red light and go only on the green light. However this is not the case, with larger vehicles still streaming across the junction seconds after the light has turned red, and smaller vehicles and pedestrians ignoring the lights altogether and trying to get across the junction any way they can. Go on the green light, but be careful.

The standard rules of priority don’t seem to apply in China, e.g. major road traffic has priority over minor road traffic, vehicles entering traffic in a lane yield priority to vehicles already in that lane, vehicles entering a roundabout yield to vehicles on the roundabout, pedestrians have priority over vehicles, especially on pedestrian crossings, etc. Instead the vehicle that is driven most aggressively or that is larger is given priority, or else there may occur a road traffic accident.