It was a sight that seemed endless — a sea of red brake lights stretching as far as the eye could see.
Thousands of vehicles were left stranded for almost 24 hours at China’s largest toll station, turning highways into parking lots and testing the patience of countless drivers.
According to Kuya Kim Atienza’s report on “24 Oras,” the gridlock happened at the Wuzhuang Toll Station, a massive hub with 36 lanes. During the National Day holiday rush, an estimated 120,000 vehicles were trapped bumper-to-bumper, unable to move for hours.
Most of those caught in the jam were families and motorists heading home after the celebrations, their excitement quickly turning to exhaustion and frustration.
Authorities immediately advised travelers to avoid the area and take alternate routes as they worked to clear the congestion. To help ease the situation, subway and bus services nearby were extended late into the night.
This isn’t the first time China has faced such a massive gridlock. Back in 2010, thousands of drivers were stuck in a week-long traffic jam along a Beijing highway — one of the worst in modern history.
According to Guinness World Records, however, the longest traffic jam ever recorded took place in France on February 16, 1980 — stretching an unbelievable 176 kilometers from Lyon to Paris. That’s roughly the same distance from Manila to Nueva Ecija or Atimonan, Quezon.
In terms of sheer numbers, the record for most vehicles stuck at once goes to the East-West German border in 1990, where 18 million cars were immobilized on a single day.
For now, the Wuzhuang Toll Station jam serves as a stark reminder — when millions travel at once, even the biggest roads in the world can come to a complete stop.
