Have just returned from 16 days in China , these are the main observations ;

While there , I went on a 7 day coach trip to Tibet , departing Kunming, including Shangri - La , was the only ' foreigner ' amongst 20 Chinese which greatly bemused all , especially on night 6 when I insisted our mad driver could not drive another 2 hours without a break - cue a pantomime scene where I show a tired driver crashing and killing us all.

Lots of top end German metal out there. In a normal apartment block I was staying in on East Coast , I saw a new Rolls Royce Phantom and no end of latest BMW / Audi models - and these all cost double our prices there.

All cars , including MB ML, Landcruisers , Q7, S class , X5 , running on unleaded at about 80p a litre ( no cars ran on diesel at all )

Driving standards are bad. Nobody ever lets anybody out and nobody slows for pedestrians , these can wait 5 mins at marked crossings and then make a run for it

Electric scooters drive on pavements at night with their lights off . Taxis do that in day to avoid waiting at lights

On the crowded motorways , they overtake , undertake and constantly honk, There are elevated roads everywhere , even in rural areas. I once saw on a motorway, one road above us and another much higher crossing above that, above fields

I saw newish European cars parked by fields while owners toiled

Volkswagen sell a saloon called a Magotan...

Shanghai has no pedestrian river crossings at all in the main bit , so pedestrians cannot cross between the Bund and the CBD. Only by car or walk 10 mins to underground and travel 1 station ( 40 p ) .

Motorway ' services ' - joke , no coffee at all. Hawkers cook corn , potatoes and other items right outside the stinking toilets. Just as well it was not high summer

They slap clusters of 12 x 30 story apartment blocks on city fringes... Nowhere for kids to play ( these stay in flats all the time outside school ). Buildings almost touch

Positives - No road rage at all, they all expect the unexpected and never get wound up

The towns of Lijiang and Dali are highly recommended , especially the former, just unbelievably beautiful.

In 2012 they matched the USA in numbers of new Bentleys sold.