China’s largest toll station in Anhui Province turned into a sea of red tail lights on Monday, October 6, as millions of travellers tried to make their way home after the extended National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival break. According to Daily Mail, the rush led to a gridlock lasting nearly 24 hours, leaving countless motorists stranded in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Viral clips from the Wuzhuang toll station, which boasts 36 lanes, show an endless stretch of vehicles crawling forward under glowing lights. Drone footage captured the chaos from above, revealing cars fanning out into dozens of lanes before squeezing back into a four-lane bottleneck at the toll gates. Officials had anticipated more than 120,000 vehicles would pass through the toll plaza that day.
This year’s National Day holiday coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, one of China’s most important family celebrations, extending the usual week-long break to eight days (October 1–8). The Ministry of Culture and Tourism reported a record 888 million trips made during the holiday period, up from 765 million last year.
Online, the footage sparked a flurry of reactions. One viewer remarked, “Well when you have 32 lanes that merge into 6… I mean what do you expect.”
Another said, “Chaos looks beautiful when you are not in it.”
A third user wrote, “That’s where mass transit plays a bigger role, can’t just let everyone drive a car simply because they can afford. Introduce high congestion, improve mass transit at the lowest cost possible.” And in true internet fashion, someone said, “This is why you always keep an empty shopping bag, a cup or bottle, and snacks in the car.”
One user compared the situation to traffic snarls in Gurgaon, saying, “Average day in Gurgaon.”
China has witnessed similar traffic nightmares in the past, most notably the infamous 2010 gridlock that stretched over 100 kilometres on the Beijing-Tibet Expressway. That jam, which began on August 14, left travellers stranded for nearly 12 days after several trucks broke down mid-route, turning the highway into a temporary parking lot.