- Issuing Authority： Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
- Document Number： Order No. 57 of the President of the People's Republic of China
- Date Issued： 11-07-2016
- Effective Date： 01-01-1998
- Level of Authority： Laws
- Area of Law：Traffic and Transport

(Adopted at the 26th Session of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress on July 3, 1997; issued by Order No. 86 of the President of the People's Republic of China on July 3, 1997; amended according to the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Revising the Highway Law of the People's Republic of China adopted at the 12th Session of the Ninth Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for the first time on October 31, 1999; amended according to the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Revising the Highway Law of the People's Republic of China adopted at the 11th Session of the Tenth Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for the second time on August 28, 2004; amended according to the Decision on Amending Some Laws issued by Order No. 18 of the President of the People's Republic of China adopted at the tenth session of the 11th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on August 27, 2009; and amended for the fourth time in accordance with the Decision of Amending Twelve Laws including the Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China as adopted at the 24th Session of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress on Nov. 7, 2016)

Table of Contents

Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Highway Planning
Chapter III Construction of Highways
Chapter IV Maintenance of Highway Roads
Chapter V Road Administration
Chapter VI Toll Highways
Chapter VII Supervision and Checking
Chapter VIII Legal Responsibilities
Chapter IX Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 The law is made to strengthen the construction and management and stimulate the development of highways so as to make their development to adapt to the need of socialist modernization and people's daily living. 　　
Article 2 The law is applicable to the planning, construction, maintenance, operation, use and management of highways inside the territory of the People's Republic of China. The word "highways" in this law includes facilities such as bridges, tunnels and ferries for the highways.
Article 3 The development of highways in the country shall follow the principles of overall planning, rational distribution, good quality and clearance of obstructions, protecting the environment and giving equal stress to construction, renovation and maintenance. 　
Article 4 The people's governments at all levels shall adopt effective measures to support and stimulate the construction of highways. Construction of highways shall be incorporated into the national economic and social development plans. The State encourages and guides domestic and foreign economic organizations to invest in the construction and operation of highways according to law. 　　
Article 5 The State shall help and support areas of minority nationalities, remote and border areas and impoverished areas to develop highways. 　　
Article 6 Highways shall be divided, according to their positions in the networks, into State roads, provincial roads, county roads and township roads and, technically into expressways, first class roads, second class roads, third class roads and fourth class roads. The specific standards for the division shall be worked out by the State Council department in charge of transportation. New roads should conform to their technical standards in grading. The existing roads that fail to meet the minimum technical grading standards thereof should be transformed step by step according to the set standards. 　
Article 7 Highway roads shall be subject to the protection by the State. No unit or individual is allowed to break or damage highways, land and ancillary facilities used by highways or illegally put them into one's own use. Any unit or individual is obliged to protect highways and lands and ancillary facilities used by highways and has the right to report acts that break and damage highways, lands and ancillary facilities used by highways and road safety of highways or put such acts into court. 　　
Article 8 Department of the State Council in charge of transportation shall be responsible for the administration of highways in the whole country. Transportation departments of local people's governments at and above the county level shall be responsible for the administration of highways in their respective administrative areas; but the functions and responsibilities of transportation departments of local people's governments at and above the county level for the administration and supervision of State roads and provincial roads shall be fixed by respective provincial, autonomous regional and municipal people's governments. People's governments of townships, townships of minority nationalities areas and towns shall be responsible for the construction and maintenance of township roads within their respective administrative areas. Transportation departments of local people's governments at and above the county level may decide to entrust road management organizations to exercise the duties of highway administration according to the provisions of this law. 　　
Article 9 It is forbidden for any unit or individual to set up check posts, collect fees, impose fines or intercept vehicles on highways. 　
Article 10 The State encourages scientific research in terms of highways and reward units and individuals that have made significant achievements on scientific and technical research and application in terms of highways. 　
Article 11 Provisions concerning special roads in this law apply to special roads. Special highway roads refer to those built, maintained, managed by enterprises or other units for their respective exclusive or main uses. 　

Chapter II Highway Planning

Article 12 Highway planning shall be made in the light of the needs of the national economic and social development and national defense and also in coordination with urban construction and development plans and the development of other traffic means. 　　
Article 13 Plans for requisition of lands for constructing roads shall conform to the master plan for land use and the land used for such purposes shall be incorporated into the general land use plan of the year. 　
Article 14 Plans in respect to State roads shall be formulated by the transportation department of the State Council together with other related departments of the State Council and the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities along the lines and submitted to the State Council for approval. Plans in respect to provincial roads shall be formulated by the transportation departments of people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities together with the people's governments of the lower level along the lines and submitted to the people's governments of the respective provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities for approval and to the transportation department of the State Council for the record. Plans in respect to county roads shall be formulated by the transportation departments of the people's governments at the county level together with related departments at the same level and submitted to the people's governments of the same level for examination and to the people's governments at the next higher level for approval. Plans in respect to township roads shall be formulated by the people's governments of township, townships inhabited by people of minority nationalities and towns with the assistance of the transportation departments of the people's governments at the county level and submitted to the people's governments at the county level for approval. Plans in respect to county roads and township roads to be approved according to the provisions of paragraph three and paragraph four of this article shall be submitted to the transportation departments of the people's governments at the next higher level for the record. Plans in respect to provincial roads should be in harmony with plans of State roads; plans of county roads shall be coordinated with plans of provincial roads; and plans of township roads shall be coordinated with plans of county roads. 　　
Article 15 Plans of special roads shall be formulated by units in charge of special roads and, after being examined by departments in charge at the next higher level, be submitted to the transportation departments of the people's governments at and above the county level for approval. Plans of special roads shall be coordinated with highway planning. Transportation departments of the people's governments at and above the county level shall put forward proposals for revision should they find the plans of special roads not coordinated with plans of State roads, provincial roads, county roads and township roads and the departments and units in charge of the special roads shall make revisions accordingly. 　　
Article 16 Partly adjustments of State road plans shall be determined by the original organ of formulation. For major revisions of State road plans, the original organ of formulation shall put forward revision plans and submit them to the State Council for approval. If plans of provincial roads, county roads and township roads already approved need revisions, the original organ of formulation shall put forward revision proposals and submit them to the original organ of approval for approval. 　
Article 17 Names and indexes of State roads shall be set by the transportation department of the State Council. Names and indexes of provincial, county and township roads shall be set by the transportation departments of the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities according to the relevant provisions of the transportation department of the State Council. 　
Article 18 New villages and towns and development zones should be planned and built with prescribed distances from highways and absolutely not to have any highway running across to avoid using highways as part of streets to impede the safety and smooth operations of the highways. 　　
Article 19 The State encourages special roads to be used for public traffic. If a special road is turned to public use, it shall be made part of provincial, county or township roads at the request of units in charge of the special roads or related departments and with the consent of the units in charge of special roads and the approval of the transportation departments of the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. 　

Chapter III Construction of Highways

Article 20 The transportation departments of people's governments at and above the county level should according to their respective duties, safeguard the order and strengthen supervision and control of highway roads construction. 　　
Article 21 In raising funds for highway construction, people's government at all levels may, in addition to put in appropriations, collect special charges for road construction or solicit loans from domestic and foreign financial organizations or foreign governments according to law and relevant provisions of the State Council on their own decisions. The State encourages investments for highway construction by domestic and foreign organizations. Companies which engage in development and/or management of highways may, according to law and administrative decrees, raise funds by means of issuance of stocks or debentures. Incomes from transfer of rights for collection of toll from highways according to the provisions of this law should be used for construction of highways. Raising funds for highway roads construction from enterprises or individuals should be undertaken under the principle of voluntariness and in accordance with true needs and possibilities and relevant regulations of the State Council. No forcible apportion is permitted. Other means permitted by law or relevant regulations of the State Council can also be used in raising funds for highways construction. 　
Article 22 Highway construction should be undertaken in accordance with procedures for infrastructural construction as provided for by the State and related regulations. 　　
Article 23 Systems of legal person responsibility, public bidding and project supervision should be introduced in projects of highway construction according to the relevant regulations of the State. 　　
Article 24 Units undertaking highway roads construction should, according to the characteristics and technical requirements of the projects, choose qualified survey and designing units, construction units and projects supervisors and sign contracts with them to clearly define respective rights and obligations of both sides in accordance with provisions of related laws, regulations and rules and the requirements of the road engineering and technical standards. Units undertaking feasibility studies, survey and designing, construction, project supervision for highway roads construction projects must be accommodated with qualification certificates issued by the State. 　　
Article 25 Undertakings of highway construction should be reported to the transportation departments of local people's governments above the county level for approval in accordance with the provisions of transportation department under the State Council. 　
Article 26 Highways should be constructed strictly in conformance with prescribed technical standards of highway construction. Units of designing, construction and project supervision of highway construction projects should establish capable Q/C systems and strictly carry out the job responsibility system in accordance with related laws of the country and undertake to design, construct and supervise the projects according to the requirements of related laws, regulations and rules and highway engineering technical standards and the terms agreed upon in the contracts in order to ensure the quality of construction. 　
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