Thursday, Dec. 09, 2010
China's 62-Mile-Long Traffic Jam
China has witnessed an unprecedented decade of growth, and nothing speaks to that boom more clearly than the soaring number of cars now owned by Chinese citizens. But the country's roads and infrastructure have not kept pace with that growth, and in August, a surreal combination of seasonal travel, road construction and increased traffic flow resulted in the unprecedented spectacle of a 62-mile-long (100 km) traffic jam on a main route into the capital city of Beijing. Initial reports estimated that the snarl, which began in August, would last well into the next month. But after only two weeks of gridlock, the traffic miraculously cleared.