The 4th Ring Road (Chinese: 四环路; pinyin: Sìhuánlù) is a controlled-access expressway ring road in Beijing, China which runs around the city, with a radius of approximately 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from city centre.

The Ring Road was 'enclosed' in a full circle in June 2001, with standard controlled-access expressway throughout.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the eastern stretch of the 4th Ring Road was opened from Siyuan Bridge to Shibalidian around October 1, 1999.

This was the first part of the ring road to be opened as an 8-lane expressway (4 lanes per direction, not including an emergency belt).

By June 2001, the entire 4th Ring Road had been converted into an expressway-standard thoroughfare.

In September 2004, the 4th Ring Road underwent a massive sign change.

A new overpass in the northern stretch was put into operation in October 2004, near the Beichen area.

The portion from Jianxiang to Siyuan Bridge, in both directions, is especially vulnerable to horrible traffic jams.

Apart from the Fengtai area, the remainder of the 4th Ring Road has a lesser risk of being clogged up by traffic jams.

A sketch map of each exit, formerly only for expressways and isolated spots, was also introduced along with the new sign numbering.

Earlier in the summer of 2004, similar measures for the 5th Ring Road (which had an absent-to-chaotic exit numbering system) were announced.

There is a definitive plus side: the exits are now matched with their equivalent exit/bridge names on the 3rd and 5th ring roads.

Meanwhile, the mixing of lowercase and uppercase English in small font sizes is another concern.