NoMad Blogger

A truck driver washes himself after waiting over two days in the jam on an entrance ramp to the Beijing-Tibet Highway. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.

Drivers in Beijing have been stuck in 10 days worth of traffic that is just now starting to somewhat breakup, according to reports. Officials are predicting that traffic won’t be completely cleared until some time in September. And I thought driving on the Mass Pike/George Washington Bridge/Long Island Expressway at rush hour was hell.

Shai Oster of the Wall Street Journal said today that traffic on National Highway 110, to the west of Beijing, began around Aug. 13 when construction on the roadway, also known as the Beijing-Tibet Highway, started. The closure of other roads around the same time added to the crunch of cars. And, not to miss the opportunity to bank on the horribleness, vendors have set up shop along the highway, selling things like noodles at inflated rates. Basically, tiny villages are springing up all over National Highway 110 as people await the chance to escape gridlock.

I haven’t heard anything about the Chinese government bringing in port-a-potty’s or portable showers along the route, so I’m assuming it’s getting pretty grimy out there. But I have to ask, what are these people driving to that’s important enough to wait 10 days for? Freedom?