China’s 60 mile traffic jam – whats it all about?

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Foreign media outlets have been going crazy for China’s latest ‘worlds biggest’ extrvaganza, which has turned out to be the worlds longest traffic jam that is spreading over 60 miles and is expected to take months to clear. The Chinese press have reported on the event, but not with the gusto that the foreign press have, which makes us wonder if it was all that bad at all in the first place.

The major issue appears to be that the road is used by the hustlers that are transporting coal from illegal mines in the vastness of Inner Mongolia where you only basically have to scrape away the top layer of sandy-dirt to discover a coal face that will make you, or break you. The vast majority of Chinese highways have traffic stops just past the toll booths where the Police will pull over truck drivers to check their papers and make sure they are not over their load or to make sure that car drivers are not removing their driving licenses (as they often do), but it seems that the highway in question was free from such controls which made it popular with the illegal coal merchants and drivers hoping to avoid the long arm of the law, ultimately it backed up worse than your average Chinese toilet when toilet paper is flushed.

The traffic jam seemed to grow into its own mobile city, with many locals coming out to sell noodles, sausages and hot water at highly marked up prices, and drivers stood around in the hot sun topping up their tans or slept under their trucks, whilst thieves made good money on several occasions by robbing the citizens of the new found highway-town.

With the worlds eye on the Chinese traffic jam, the central government appeared to be embarrassed into action and swiftly ordered the traffic to move more freely, and thus overnight the traffic jam was undone.