These days Chinese cars, Chinese tech and Chinese manufacturing methods are a big conversation point.

It's only natural considering we're in the middle of a Chinese car influx: Chinese brands held just under 10 per cent of the UK car market in the first three quarters of 2025, according to Auto Express.

While we hear these kind of expansion stats and start seeing cheap Chinese EVs on the road in Britain, in reality very few people know what driving in China is like. Or the what the picture of Chinese car brands on the roads actually looks like.

But last month, motoring reporter Freda Lewis-Stempel had the rare opportunity to see the reality of China from behind the wheel, embarking on a test driving road trip across southern China and down to Hong Kong with China's largest car exporter Chery.

From the somewhat expected abundance of futuristic EVs, to the totally unexpected beauty of toll booths, and the unfathomable scale of Chinese motorway infrastructure and bridges, or the light year ahead anti-tiredness laser shows, taking to the road in China is entering a very different, very advanced world...

Here's what to expect if you're ever taking to Chinese roads... 

Driver alert systems - lasers in the sky and sirens in tunnels

If I had to choose the most out of body experience driving in China it would be the anti-driver drowsiness technology on highways.

Driving on the motorway at night is like being in a high speed, behind the wheel version of laser tag. There are lights coming at you in all directions. 

Overhead you've got white flashing lights of constant speed cameras (they flash regardless of what speed you're going), alongside you there are yellow and white lights on the motorway crash barriers and purple and pink spinning Catherine wheels-style lights.

These are to all to keep you alert and awake. 

But they seem almost subtle compared to the newest anti-sleep laser systems China is deploying. These systems project colorful (I saw pink, purple, green) lasers across the road and into the sky to visually stimulate drivers.

I can attest to to it keeping you awake; your eyes closing while lasers are beamed into them is pretty much impossible. And because it gives you such good visibility, with most of the road lit up, it is safer to drive at night in that respect.

However I'm not sure how safe it is long term, and immediately I was concerned how anyone with health conditions, especially epilepsy, is supposed to drive in such conditions. 

The other particularly disconcerting anti-drowsiness device are the 'sirens' played in tunnels to keep you awake and in-lane. The first time you hear it you think an ambulance is about to fly past or it's some kind of warning system. 

So, it's safe to say you need to be unflappable and quick to adapt in order drive in China at night. But you won't nod off that's for sure.

Speed controls - constant AI HD cameras to keep an eye on you

In China there are speed cameras every 500m or 1km or so on busy stretches. That's not exaggerating. Driving thousands of kilometers across southern China I saw thousands of speed cameras.

The cameras are essentially average speed check cameras. Usually mounted over the motorway on gantries or on a pole by the road, they take your average speed just like UK cameras, reading the vehicle's license plate and recording the time and date as the car passes.

But in China the cameras flash every time you pass, whether you're over the speed limit or not. You get a face full of white light, and the camera captures a perfect, HD photo of you behind the wheel.

Each camera is not just checking your average speed, and working it out, it's making sure you aren't on your phone. 

And accordingly your car, using AMap - the Google Maps of China - will calculate your average speed as you drive in real time. 

It's disconcerting having cameras flash at you all time. Your immediate reaction is to slow down, so it takes some overriding of one's brain to keep your foot down and not get phased. 

And China makes speeding warnings personal too: electronic signs flash your number plate up overhead if you approach a speed camera too fast, in a direct warning to slow down.

AMap - China's answer to Google Maps 

No Google in China means no Google Maps. Instead, everyone uses AMap. 

AMap says its the choice of 800 million navigation users, in over 200 countries and territories, but its English language option seems slow to catch on.

However in China it's the thing, and whereas Google Maps gives you routes, traffic updates, services etc, AMap does all that and half the driving for you too.

As well as calculating your average speed for you, it gives you 3D lane-level views and traffic light countdown, literally telling you when to turn, as well as detailed junction views.

It even has an integrated taxi service so you can hail a ride as well as get live public transport options.

EVs are everywhere in cities - and they're makes and models we don't have

As soon as I exited the terminal at Shanghai Pudong International, I realised that car spotting is very different in China. 

I'd say one out of every 10 cars is a brand or model that UK motorists would recognise. The rest of the cars are Chinese, and many of them are Chinese brands and models that haven't arrived in the UK or Europe yet.

BYD is the most popular brand, but Wuling comes second and Li Auto lands in the top five. 

The taxis were all Voyah Dreamer EVs, the bays were full of XPengs or Li Autos and the highways and cities were Xiaomi, Zeeker or IMs. 

Even in the countryside, when it was more common to see a hand-built 'tractor' than EVs and traffic consisted of maybe another car every five to 10 minutes, there were barely any western cars on the road. 

In China EVs are simply a way of life already. At the end of 2024, there were 353 million cars on the road in China. Of these 31.4 million were New Energy Vehicles (NEVs). 

And EVs aren't luxury purchases - in fact people say they can't afford petrol cars, instead opting for cheaper to run EVs. 

I saw a young woman pull up in a rural car park at the bottom of Danxia Mountain, Guangdong, looking extremely cool in what I thought was a Porsche Taycan from a distance. But no, it was a purple Xiaomi U7 with a purple interior - because why not? 

And it costs the equivalent of about $30k.

EVs are seen as 'playful' cars in China - you can express your personality through these cars: At one service station there was an EV plugged into a charger with a little animated dog popping up behind the number plate to signal it was charging. 

The other notable thing that EVs have done in China is cut the air and noise pollution.

 Due of the number of EVs, the cities of Shanghai and Wuhu were virtually silent even during 'rush hour' and the air quality felt much cleaner than I'd expected. 

It was a step into a very quiet future. 

The largest bridges and flyovers in the world - 34 miles across the sea to Hong Kong

At no point will it be comprehensible to me that a bridge can be as long as the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge (HKZM). It's the kind of feat of Chinese engineering I'd read about by never properly considered.

Stretching 34 miles, it is technically three cable-stayed bridges, going over four artificial islands and linking Hong Kong in the east with Zhuhai–Macao in the west.

Six lanes carry traffic over the bridge, three lanes each way, as per a standard highway. While American and Chinese accounts (unsurprisingly) differ on how busy the bridge is, China says it has been used by 10 million cars as of 2024, five years after opening. American publications on the other hand have called it a 'ghost bridge'.

It wasn't a ghost bridge when I went over it, but there wasn't a built up of traffic that's for sure. You're travelling at 100km an hour for 40 minutes to cover the 55km, so it's hardly surprising that traffic is thinned out.

At some points the bridge is 460 metres tall, from base to the top of the cable sections. Visible sections of cable reach to 42 metres. It is both the longest sea crossing and the longest open-sea fixed link in the world. 

The horizon is nothing but water, sky and bridge. 

In the sunny haze I could just make out a pencil line snaking around, but it wasn't until my eyes adjusted that I realised the line was bridge. For 40 minutes this would go on, my eyes unable to make out the expanse of bridge into the distance. 

It wasn't the only big bridge I drove over. But up to that point I thought a long bridge was the Jinxihu Grand Bridge (or the 'Super Long Bridge') - a key part of the Dexing-Nanchang highway.

Stretching over the Jinxi Lake, it's around 5.7 miles long - the longest highway bridge in east China’s Jiangxi Province.

For context that's over three times the length of the Queensferry Crossing connecting Edinburgh and Fife on the M90.

But then we drove over the HKZM Bridge which is over 10 times the length of the Queensferry Crossing, and I decided the 'Super Long Bridge' needed a new, more modest name. 

Empty roads and perfect tarmac - China's road conditions are far better than the UK's 

For the most part in the southern countryside and cities of China I drove the roads were gloriously empty. 

A bit like the stretches of French motorway, you could weave in and out of traffic, passing only the occasional other car. This was the case for hundreds, if not thousands of kilometers.

Many of the cities were the same, with hardly any traffic and it perfectly possible to make a U-turn in the middle of a four-lane road.

And the 'flyovers' and bypass roads make Hammersmith flyover look like an appetizer to the main dish. 

In some cities though the opposite was the case; it was carnage: Jingdezhen might as well have been the Arc du Triomphe in a straight line; pedestrians, mopeds, cyclists and cars coming from all directions, in the middle of lanes, no indicating, going head on into traffic.

However this was the anomaly, for the most part the roads were quiet. 

One consistency throughout was the quality of the roads. 

It didn't matter if we were driving through a newly-built, yet to be inhabited city or along winding mountain passes in the Guangdong Province, there wasn't a pothole in sight - the road condition was perfect and a joy to drive on.

Chinese toll booths - culturally significant gateways 

A completely unexpected thrill of driving China were the toll booths. 

While it seems downright odd to get excited about what many people would consider a functional, usually ugly, construction that takes your money, the toll booths in China were so beautiful that it seems almost fair to cough up money.

Tool booths in China have architectural significance. While they aren't temples, they are designed in style that evokes this temple-like Chinse architecture, particularly in the design of the roofs and paifang archways. 

The booth is covered in beautiful patterns, friezes and mosaics in vibrant colours that represent local elements and tie in the local cultural context.

As such the toll booths not only blend into the landscape but act as a symbolic gateway to different regions. 

Not exactly the M6 toll are they.