Each time I approach an intersection you need to pay attention to the signs (at least those with some english on them) and adjust for the wide range of driving experience found on the chinese roads. The octopus style intersection makes this challenging because its new/different and there are no straight lines or right angles:
The line in green is the route I follow every day. I pass above the north/south road, then under the east-west road, finally merging with traffic from both directions. For comparison if I was doing the same thing in grand rapids it would look like this:
As you can see the octopus provides a shorter overall route and allows you to maintain a higher speed while passing through the intersection. It also takes up less space, which I suspect was a big concern when building the interchange. To accomplish this it does have many more bridges as the roads weave through each other. Visibility isn't as good and it was a bit disorienting the first time I went through it. You also have no way of making a U turn which can be a big problem if you miss a sign since you won't be able to make U turn at the next intersection either!
Overall the highways in china are very well built, smooth and in good condition. The surface streets are another story for another time. I want to take some pictures of the route to show some more of the oddities of my route. Especially the "ghost road" I ride on every day :-)
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