sounds like an amazing trip! Allthough I haven't been to northern china, southern china is the same way... I know exactly what you're talking about with the bike lanes/traffic lanes... in rush hour seeing delivery trucks cut around traffic, drive on the sidewalk into the bike lane, then back out into the intersection at a red light... traffic laws just don't exist there. I'm surprised you didn't see any accidents though. the most and some of the worst i've see have been in china.