I know China has tons of tolls. Say on a weekend trip 500 KM or so how many tolls are you going to run into? At first I thought tolls only existed on the expressways which I didn't plan on riding anyway but I'm pretty sure they exist all over the place. 高速，国道，省道, maybe even 县道??? And from what I've seen, they're not too cheap, and sticking to non-tolled roads in shitty condition for a long trip would just take forever.

Do people generally just try to take tolled roads when appropriate and talk their way out of it, or skirt around them? Is there any rhyme or reason (I know rhyme and reason is hard to come by in China) to which roads tolls are on, and any surefire way to get through them? I'm just imagining trying to drive a newer road on a semi long trip and shelling out 40 kuai every 100 km or so... seems kinda crazy!