This is the story of the 60 mile long traffic jam which lasted for 12 days in China.
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We all hate traffic jams. Whether you're trying to get to work on time
or just have a bit of fun on the weekends, queuing up for seemingly
hours just to move a few inches is downright infuriating.
This story is about the mother of all traffic jams, one so big that it created a new economy and authorities were worried that people stuck in the traffic might begin to starve.
This is the China National Highway 110, also known as the G110.
It's absolutely massive. It runs from Qingtongxia, thanks to a new extension, through a big portion of Inner Mongolia, to Beijing.
It's about 843 miles long, which is roughly the same distance
as driving from Land's end to John o Groats.
Since it's one of the major routes which is used to get to Beijing, China's capital, it's always been subject to a ton of traffic, especially since there's been a rapid increase in ownership of cars in china over the years.
The combination of more cars on the roads paired with an increase in lorries importing goods to Beijing to serve the expanding population began to put a huge strain on the highway in the early 2000s.
By 2010, it hit tipping point.
On Wednesday, the 14th of August, the traffic jam started to take shape.
Traffic volume was an estimated 60% over the absolute limit, and ongoing construction work had cut the capacity by 50%. This meant the amount of traffic on the road was at more than triple its maximum capacity.
ironically, many of the trucks which exacerbated the jam were actually trying to bring supplies to the roadworks site too.
Unsurprisingly, this slowed traffic down to a stop, mainly between
Jining in inner Mongolia and Huai'an, north west of Beijing.
The drastic narrowing of the highway forced drivers to merge into already gridlocked lanes, creating a huge bottleneck.
With extremely limited alternative routes, drivers heading to Beijing were forced to simply join onto the back of the queue and wait it out.
The traffic jam slowed thousands of cars down to a snail's pace, with
many vehicles stuck in the jam moving just a kilometre in an entire day.
Worse still, the traffic had taken its toll on a number of vehicles,
which broke down and further clogged everything up.
In short, no one was moving anywhere. At its worst, the traffic jam was over 60 miles long, and lasted for 12 days, making it without a doubt one of the worst traffic jams in history.
People naturally became frustrated, tired, hungry and thirsty. Entrepreneurial locals saw the opportunity, and sold basic necessities
like food, water and cigarettes at astronomical prices.
I mean what are you gonna do, drive to the shop where its cheaper?
Goods were being sold left and right for 15 times their retail price,
especially the bare essentials like bottled water. This new mini-economy was proving fruitful for the locals, with some creating little shops which they could cart around on bikes, weaving
in and out of the stranded cars.
One driver complained that it was more expensive to be stuck in traffic than eat out at a restaurant.
Mr Zhang, one of the unfortunate victims of the jam said in an interview that some of the sellers had become very aggressive - he said that some of the sellers would hit your window with bricks if you didn't buy from them.
