Traffic jam to beat all traffic jams

Traffic jams can be a real pain.

Whether you're stuck near Cathedral Square, crawling towards the Mt Victoria Tunnel, or gridlocked at Spaghetti Junction, delays are enervating.

Sometimes - think about the end of school holidays and Coromandel's Kopu Bridge, for example - stoppages can last hours.

But how about a nine-day-long snarl-up?

That's what thousands of Chinese motorists are currently bogged down in.

The vehicles are mired in a more than 100km-long traffic jam leading to Beijing that has lasted nine days and highlights China's growing road congestion woes, AFP reports.

The Beijing-Tibet expressway slowed to a crawl on August 14 due to a spike in traffic by cargo-bearing heavy trucks heading to the capital, and compounded by road maintenance work that began five days later, the Global Times said.

The state-run newspaper said the jam between Beijing and Jining city had given birth to its own mini-economy.

Local merchants have capitalised on the stranded drivers' predicament by selling them water and food at inflated prices.

That stretch of highway linking Beijing with the northern province of Hebei and the Inner Mongolia region has become increasingly prone to massive jams as goods are transported to service the needs of 20 million people.

The roadway is a major artery for the supply of produce, coal and other goods to Beijing.

Next we're waiting for news of the first baby to be born in this asphalt 'community'.

At this rate, he or she may get to celebrate a first birthday on the blacktop as well.

- NZHERALD STAFF