At the end of 2009, the Ministry of Transportation announced that China would standardize the naming and numbering of national highways as an attempt to improve the service level of the national expressway network.

There haven’t been many consistent national regulations for expressway signage in China before, and mistakes either in translation or spelling were common. The fonts varied from Helvetica to Arial and even to Serif type fonts which are not deemed suitable for use on signs. The new fonts are the same as the traditional highway fonts “FHWA” used in the United States, while in the US this font is being replaced by “Clearview” (see http://www.clearviewhwy.com/).

It has been two years since the Ministry of Transport first called on all provinces to apply the new and unified signs, but there have been numerous

delays. Jiangxi Province was the first province who finished changing all of their signs. The Chinese characters used in the sign, which drivers were

familiar with, are now replaced by letters and numbers. The roadways are divided into two types- G and S; G represents the national highway while S represents by the province's highway. For example, in the following figure you can see Hukun Expressway is now changed to G60. 

It will take time for drivers to get used to the new system. Some experts have criticized the simple copying of the sign fonts from other countries without careful research into the fonts or design from a domestic perspective. As you can see, market research and visual identity is important for highway signs too!