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Expressway network for the People's Republic of China
the expressway system of the People's Republic of China

The expressway network of China, with the national level expressway system officially known as the National Trunk Highway System (; abbreviated as NTHS), is an integrated system of national and provincial level expressways in China. With the construction of the Shenyang–Dalian Expressway beginning between the cities of Shenyang and Dalian on 7 June 1984, the Chinese government started to take an interest in a national expressway system. The first modern at grade China National Highways is the Shanghai–Jiading Expressway, opened in October 1988. The early 1990s saw the start of the country's massive plan to upgrade its network of roads. On 13 January 2005, Zhang Chunxian, China's Minister of Transport introduced the 7918 network, later renamed the 71118 network, composed of a grid of 7 radial expressways from Beijing, 9 north–south expressways (increased to 11), and 18 east–west expressways that would form the backbone of the national expressway system. the world's largest expressway system by length, having surpassed the overall length of the American Interstate Highway System in 2011. Planned length of China's National Trunk Highway System is by 2020. Many of the major expressways parallel routes of the older China National Highways. By the end of 2022, the total length of China's expressway network reached ,

Prior to the 1980s, freight and passenger transport activities were predominantly achieved by rail transport rather than by road. The 1980s and 1990s saw a growing trend toward roads as a method of transportation and a shift away from rail transport. In 1978, rail transport accounted for 54.4 percent of the total freight movement in China, while road transport only accounted for 2.8 per cent. By 1997, road transport's share of freight movement had increased to 13.8 percent while the railway's share decreased to 34.3 percent. Similarly, road's share of passenger transport increased from 29.9% to 53.3% within the same time period, with railway's share decreasing from 62.7 percent to 35.4 percent. The shift from rail to road can be attributed to the rapid development of the expressway network in China. On 7 June 1984, China's expressway ambitions began when construction of the Shenyang–Dalian Expressway began between the cities of Shenyang and Dalian. Due to policy restrictions, the expressway was nominally implemented on the first grade automobile special highway standard in the initial stage of construction, thus making the highway technically not an expressway. Despite this, in October 1988, four years later, two full speed, fully enclosed, controlled accessed expressway sections from Shenyang to Anshan and Dalian to Sanshilipu totaling were completed, with the middle portion of the expressway remaining a highway. It would take until 20 August 1990, for all sections of the highway to become that of an expressway. The expressway is now part of the longer G15 Shenyang–Haikou Expressway.

In 2008 the rate of fatalities on Chinese expressways is 3.3 fatalities per 100 million vehicle km. Nonetheless, the fatality rate on Chinese expressways is five times higher than
western countries which have a 0.7 rate. In 2010 the total expressway mileage accounted for only 1.85 percent of highway mileage driven, however accidents on expressways made up 13.54% of highway traffic deaths. For the 2011 2015 period this was still at 10%. The accidents are mainly caused by tailgating, fatigue and speeding.

Neither officially named "motorway" nor "highway", China used to call these roads "freeways". In this sense, the word "free" means that the traffic is free flowing; that is, cross traffic is grade separated and the traffic on the freeway is not impeded by traffic control devices like traffic lights and stop signs. Some time in the 1990s, "expressways" became the standardised term. Note that "highways" refers to China National Highways, which are not expressways at all. "Express routes" exist too; they are akin to expressways but are mainly inside cities. The "express route" name is a derivation of the Chinese name kuaisu gonglu (compare with expressway, gaosu gonglu). Officially, "expressway" is used for both expressways and express routes, which is also the standard used here. The names of the individual expressways are regularly composed of two characters representing start and end of expressway, e. g. "Jingcheng" expressway is the expressway between "Jing" (meaning Beijing) and Chengde.

The Road Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates the speed limit of , effective since 1 May 2004. A minimum speed limit of is in force. On overtaking lanes, however, this could be as high as Penalties for driving both below and in excess of the prescribed speed limits are enforced. Some expressways have a lower design speed of .

Only motor vehicles are allowed to enter expressways. As of 1 May 2004, "new drivers" (i. e., those with a Chinese driver's licence for less than a year) are allowed on expressways, something that was prohibited from the mid 1990s. Overtaking on the right, speeding, and illegal use of the emergency belt (or hard shoulder) cost violators stiff penalties.

Expressways in China are signed in both Simplified Chinese and English (except for parts of the Jingshi Expressway, which relies only on Chinese characters, and some provinces, in Inner Mongolia for example signs are in Mongolian and Chinese, and in Xinjiang the signs are in Chinese and Uyghur Language which uses Perso Arabic alphabet). The signs on Chinese expressways use white lettering on a green background, like Japanese highways, Italian autostrade, Swiss autobahns and United States freeways. Newer signage places the exit number in an exit tab to the upper right of the sign, making them very similar in appearance to American freeway signs. Exits are well indicated, with signs far ahead of exits. There are frequent signs that announce the next three exits. At each exit, there is a sign with the distance to the next exit. Exit signs are also posted , , , and ahead of the exit, immediately before the exit, and at the exit itself. Service areas and refreshment areas are standard on some of the older, more established expressways, and are expanding in number. Gas stations are frequent. Signs indicate exits, toll gates, service/refreshment areas, intersections, and also warn about keeping a fair distance apart. "Distance checks" are commonplace; the idea here is to keep the two second rule (or, as Chinese law requires, at least a distance between cars). Speed checks and speed traps are often signposted (in fact, on the Jingshen Expressway in the Beijing section, even the cameras have a warning sign above them), but some may just be scarecrow signs. Signs urging drivers to slow down, warning about hilly terrain, banning driving in emergency lanes, or about different road surfaces are also present. Also appearing from time to time are signs signaling the overtaking lane (which legally should only be used to pass other cars). Although most English signs are comprehensible, occasionally the English is garbled. Many expressways have digital displays. These displays may advise against speeding, indicate upcoming road construction, warn of traffic jams, or alert drivers to rain. Recommended detours are also signaled. The great majority of messages are only in Chinese.

Exit numbering has been standardised in China from its inception. Most Chinese expressways, especially those in the national network, use distance based exit numbering, with the last three numbers before the decimal point taken used as the exit number. Hence, an exit at km 982.7 would be Exit 982, whereas an exit at km 3,121.2 would be Exit 121. Exit numbers on Chinese expressways increase along the total length of the freeway, regardless of how many provincial boundaries the expressway crosses. Some, mostly regional, expressways still use sequential exit numbering, although even here, new signage feature distance based exit numbering. Before the 2009–2010 numbering switchover, nearly all of China's expressways used sequential numbering, and a few expressways used Chinese names outright. One of the reasons for this shift is that distance based exit numbering comes in handy when newly built exits are added to an expressway exit system. If sequential numbering is used, numbers of all the exits following the new exit have to be replaced, which will be a troublesome and costly project. But that will not be a problem for distance based exit numbering. The exit is written inside an oval in green letters to the immediate right of the Chinese word for exit, "出口" (chukou).

The total costs of the national expressway network are estimated to be 2 trillion yuan (some US$300 billion as rate in 2016). From 2005 to 2010, the annual investment was planned to run from 140 billion to 150 billion yuan (17 to 18 billion U. S. dollars), while from 2010 to 2020, the annual investment planned is to be around 100 billion yuan. The construction fund will come from vehicle purchase tax, fees and taxes collected by local governments, state bonds, domestic investment and foreign investment. Unlike other freeway systems, almost all of the roads on the NTHS/"7918 Network" are toll roads that are largely financed by private companies under contract from provincial governments. The private companies raise money through bond and stock offerings and recover money through tolls. Examples of these companies include Huabei Expressway Co., Ltd., Northeast Expressway Co., Ltd., Hunan Changyong Expressway Co., Ltd., and Guangxi Wuzhou Transportation Co., Ltd.

China has an extensive tollway system, which composed of nearly all expressways as well as having around 70% of the world's tollways. Tolls are roughly around CNY 0.5 per kilometer, and minimum rates (e. g. CNY 5) usually apply regardless of distance. However, some are more expensive (the Jinji Expressway costs around CNY 0.66 per kilometer) and some are less expensive (the Jingshi Expressway in Beijing costs around CNY 0.33 per kilometer). It is noteworthy that cheaper expressways do not necessarily mean poorer roads or a greater risk of traffic congestion. Roads in Tibet and Hainan are all toll free. In Tibet, this is done to stimulate economic development, whereas in Hainan, the cost is covered by a provincial fuel tax, first instated in 1994. Tolls are waived nationwide during national holidays, such as Golden Week, and regionally for locally observed holidays. For example, Xinjiang makes all expressway travel free during Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha. Expressway planning is performed by the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China. Unlike the road networks in most nations, most Chinese expressways are not directly owned by the state, but rather are owned by for profit corporations (which have varying amounts of public and private ownership) which borrow money from banks or securities markets based on revenue from projected tollways. Examples of these corporations include Huabei Expressway Co., Ltd., Northeast Expressway Co., Ltd., Hunan Changyong Expressway Co., Ltd., and Guangxi Wuzhou Transportation Co., Ltd. Reforms of the tollway system were planned by the National People's Congress with the inclusion of cost reduction of bridges. However, the toll system was also praised by the World Bank for encouraging construction/maintenance, discouraging overuse, and not unduly favouring roads over other forms of transportation like rail.

Most expressways use a card system. Upon entrance to an expressway (or to a toll portion of the expressway), an entry card is handed over to the driver. The tolls to be paid are determined from the distance traveled when the driver hands the entry card back to the exit toll gate upon leaving the expressway. A small number of expressways do not use a card system but charge unitary fares. Passage through these expressways is relatively faster but it is economically less advantageous. An example of such an expressway would be the Jingtong Expressway. China is increasingly deploying a network of electronic toll collection (ETC) systems, and in the latest edition of expressway toll gate signage, a new ETC sign is now shown at an increasing number of toll gates. ETC networks based around Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong province all feature either mixed toll passages supporting toll card payment or full service dedicated ETC lanes. Beijing, in particular, has a dedicated ETC lane at almost all toll gates. By 2019, 90% of traffic paid is expected to pay toll fees using the ETC system. City transit cards are not widely used; one of the first experiments with the Beijing Yikatong Card on what is now the Jingzang Expressway (G6) went live for only a year before a new national standard replaced it in early 2008.

A previous system, the 1992 "five vertical + seven horizontal expressways" system, was used for arterial expressways and were, in essence, G0 series expressways (e. g. G020, G025). This was replaced by the present day new numeric system (see below).

All expressways in this network begin with the letter G. (For regional expressways, the letter S is used instead.) All expressways have a thin band on top of the sign. For national expressways, it will be red; for regional ones, it will be orange yellow. For radial expressways leaving from or ending in Beijing, use a single digit from 1 to 9 (e. g., G1, G2). For north–south expressways, use an odd number from 11 to 89 (e. g., G11, G35). For west–east expressways, use an even number from 10 to 90 (e. g., G20, G36). For regional ring expressways in the 7, 11, 18 network, use numbers from 91 to 98. (e. g., G91, G93)
For metropolitan area ring expressways, use number 99 plus numbers from 01 to 12. (e. g., G9901, G9912)
Note: G99 or the Taiwan Ring Expressway was a planned expressway based in Taiwan Province before cancelled in 2022, which is claimed by the People's Republic of China, but is actually administered by the Republic of China. (In addition, the ROC has not built the eastern half as an expressway.) See Political status of Taiwan. See also Highway system in Taiwan for the current Republic of China maintained Taiwan freeway system, which uses a different numbering system. For city ring expressways, use "0" plus an order number after the main line number, starting from the smallest possible number (e. g., G5001). For connection expressways, use an odd numeral plus an order number after the main line (e. g., G9411). For the parallel expressways running alongside primary ones, use an even numeral (except "0") plus an order number after the main line (e. g. G0422, here the corresponding main line with a single digit should follow a "0" to distinguish from CNH).