A massive traffic jam in China has slowed vehicles to a
crawl for nine days near Beijing, local media say.
Vehicles, mostly lorries bound for Beijing, are in a queue for about 100 km
(62 miles) because of heavy traffic, road works and breakdowns.
The drivers have complained that locals were over-charging them for food and
drink while they were stuck.
The situation has now "basically returned to normal," state television said
on Monday.
There has been a boom in road building in China in recent years but vehicle
use has soared at the same time.
The stalled traffic stretched between Jining in Inner Mongolia and Huai'an in
Hebei province, north-west of Beijing, said the Global Times.
The road works which were obstructing traffic are necessary to repair damage
caused by an increase in cargo lorries using the highway, the state-run
newspaper said.
They are not expected to be finished until mid-September.
The motorway, part of the Beijing-Tibet expressway, is heavily used by
lorries carrying coal from Inner Mongolia.
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