When driving on expressway, you won't pass through towns unless exit the expressway...If u choose national or provincial highways, mostly they are directly through urban areas of a county. I prefer to take HSR and take photos of parallel roads.
The formal nomenclature of "provincial highway" is "Unclassified Highway" (等级外公路). In China, highways are constructed based on
legislation JTG-B01-2003 ("Technical Standard on Highway Construction" or "公路工程技术标准"). Except for the highest grade of control-access highways, i.e.
Expressways, others are classified into 5 levels.
Expressways are Controlled-Access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane dividers, etc., designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow and ingress/egress regulated. By 2015, quantity of Expressways (高速公路) is
111,950 km
The quantities of
Highways are as below:
Level 1 Highway (一级公路) 74,300 km
Level 2 Highway (二级公路) 331,500 km
Level 3 Highway (三级公路) 401,900 km
Level 4 Highway (四级公路) 2,705,800 km
Unclassified Highway (等级外公路) 627,900 km
Total Highways
4,141,400 km
Sample of Level 1 Highway