Transportation in China
Similar to travelling to any other foreign countries, figuring out the effective ways of transportation and how to get around are essential for travelers, especially for independent travelers. Including airways, railways, highways, expressways, waterways, metro-subways and buses, etc, travelers have a variety of choices in China.
China has especially extensive railroad systems, which provide a great means to travel between cities. Inside big cities, subways and metro buses can be more time-saving than taxies sometimes due to the increased traffic jams in the city. Learn how to use China’s railway and subway systems can be very helpful and they are easy to learn, no matter knowing the languages or not, because most of the maps and graphs look the same like in any other countries. Most of the major tourist cities also have English-speaking Information Desk that you can ask all your questions before you head to the next destination.
New railway line like Qinghai-Tibet Railway launched in recent years, is a great tourist attraction and one major route to visit the once mysteries and extremely remote Tibet. Early booking is definitely recommended.
A very good article on Wikipedia on transport in China could be useful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China