Super Jam

Who's kicking out the biggest jams these days? Phish? The Dead? Dave Matthews Band? Sorry, but it's north China, with a massive traffic jam that has reached it's 10th day, and stretches for almost 60 miles. Looks like food and medicine isn't the only thing you've managed to toxify.

A combination of road construction and a spike in delivery vehicles for has created bumper-to-bumper gridlock, with cars once moving slightly more than a half-mile a day. Some drivers are reported to have been stuck in the jam for five days, and the construction efforts will not be done for another month, nearly guaranteeing no quick end in sight.

The traffic jam started on a stretch of the highway that is frequently congested, due to large coalfields were discovered in Inner Mongolia. The traffic volume has increased 40% every year since the discovery. Drivers stuck in the sea of cars are being serviced by local villagers selling instant noodles, boxed lunches and snacks, weaving between the parked vehicles on bicycles. And they're making quite a profit - a bottle of water that normally costs 1 yuan (15 cents) was selling for 10 yuan ($1.50), while the price of a 3 yuan (45 cent) cup of instant noodles had more than tripled.

Authorities were trying to speed up traffic by allowing more trucks to enter Beijing and asked trucking companies to suspend operations and advised drivers to take alternate routes. While a delay of this magnitude is uncommon, improving the infrastructure of the country is long overdue and will take years if not decades to connect countryside with cityscape. Welcome to modern times, China!