The great crawl of China: Thousands of holidaymakers left stranded in 50-lane traffic jam

A new checkpoint on a motorway leading to Beijing caused huge queues. Photo: Sploid / YouTube

If you thought the traffic was bad in New Zealand then spare a thought for the poor motorists who were left stranded in this 50-lane traffic jam in China.

A new checkpoint on a motorway leading to Beijing caused huge queues as the week-long national holiday came to an end.

Drone footage captured the sheer magnitude of the traffic chaos as several hundred million people began their journeys home on one of the country's busiest roads, the G4 Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway.

The Daily Mail reported around 750 million people - half of China's total population - went on holiday.

The holiday known as the 'Golden Week', the Chinese National Day celebration is one of the few opportunities for people to get time off work and enjoy a long-distance holiday, the Daily Mail reported.

The horrific scenes were one of the many traffic nightmares across the country. Motorways in other major cities, such as Shanghai and Nanjing, also saw serious congestion.