Freeway signs in China
 

On a recent trip I noticed that the directional signs (exits, city names, etc) on Chinese freeways are now white characters on green background - same as what is being used in U.S/Canada. I remember a few years ago the same signs were standardized on white characters on blue background (I was very certain of this fact because it struck me as odd). When did it change?

I'm not sure if it had ever changed. The green backgrounds are used for motorways while the blue backgrounds are for lower-grade roads.

I've been doing lots of road travel lately, and I'm in agreement with tauphi. The white characters on blue are still on all signs I've seen that are not official "G" motorways. Those are white on green. Brown signage for tourist attractions.

Agree with above. But let me add that it's pathetic (or unfortunate, depending on your point of view) that with 26 characters in the Roman alphabet, China decides they'll again use "G" to stand for their national expressway system (for Guojia gaosu, or 国家高速), with one or two numeric characters afterwards.

While the old national highway system still maintains the same "G" prefix (for Guodao, or 国道), with 3 or 4 numbers following.

So confusing, like lots of things in China.

How is this any different than us using "I" in the American system?

Things aren't perfect in the US, but there are "I"s and there are "US"es. In China, there are "G"s and there are "G"s.

What the US has going for it is that very logical numbering system. There is no reason the Chinese couldn't copy it.

The US had a very logical system, until the local politicans got their hands on it. That's how we got I-99 in the middle of PA.

Well, the Chinese does have a pretty good nomenclature system for their trains.

Anyways, if they really want to stick with their pinyins, at least they can do "GG" for the National Expressway system. Instead of just the same old "G".

Well, the freeway between Shanghai and Hangzhou - one of the first freeways built in China - had white character on blue background for directional signs back in 2001. I remember seeing this and thinking that they really wanted to be a little different, even the color.

The signs are green now, and it hasn't been free for at least 10 years.

Seen any funny signs in China? Shanghai's elevated inner freeway/viaduct ring used to have signs that said "In Circle Way". That's long been fixed :)

Funny signs are a dime a dozen, but are a fading trend because many people here are pretty good at English these days; China has completely eclipsed Japan on this front during the course of the past 10 years. That having been said, if I had been on hand when the powers that be created their enormous $100,000 "Wellcome to Shanghai" sign, I would have helped them make it right during the course of 30 seconds.

Perhaps they were hinting at future ties with big pharma or medical research?;)

tb

As a beijinger, I never notice the directional signs . The funny thing I recalled is some bus stop changed since oneday ,there are all red characters on green background.Obviously, A normal person can't read it clear. I thought that it might be all .... with the officer's brain. A couble of days later ,It changed back, nobody was blamed.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1))

Color was the less concern, left turn only lane in the middle or far right was a lesson to be learned -;)