When economists predicted that the next stage of China’s development would see the fruits of growth spread to the interior, this isn’t what they had in mind.
On Monday, state media reported that a traffic jam stretching more than 100km on a major national expressway leading northwest from Beijing had entered its ninth day of virtual standstill.
Road works along the Beijing-Tibet Expressway have been exacerbated by traffic accidents and broken-down cars and traffic has backed up from the outskirts of Beijing all the way into Inner Mongolia.
Many of the vehicles stuck in the gridlock are trucks carrying coal and fruit.
While delayed delivery of goods shipments will have an adverse affect on China’s overall economy, for some residents living beside the congested stretch of highway the traffic has been a bonanza.
Truck drivers interviewed by Chinese state media said they were forced to buy instant noodles at four times their original price from local residents while they sat for days playing cards or just resting in their vehicles.
Beijing’s traffic management bureau said the monster traffic jam, which is often replicated on a smaller scale throughout the country, is expected to last for nearly a month.
The other side-effects of China’s scorching economic growth, from poisonous air to worsening income inequality, are already well-known to all who visit the country. But traffic jams like this could become much more common as consumers – in what is now the world’s largest car market – snap up more than 10m vehicles a year.
Looking on the bright side, perhaps the boon to the local economy from all those over-priced instant noodles will make a small contribution to closing the country’s wealth gap.
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