Maybe you’ve let this National Day holiday creep up on you, and suddenly you’ve got seven full days off but don’t know where to go.

Relax. The best place to spend your time off may very well be in your own home.

Notwithstanding the fact that expat homes come in a variety of shapes and sizes, your home has one defining aspect that differentiates it from the traveling and tourism that will take place during this National Day Golden Week: your home isn’t crowded with hundreds of thousands of people.

If you decided to attend the two minute, seven second flag raising ceremony this morning in Tiananmen Square, you would have shared this unique experience in the company of 120,000 other spectators:

If, during this holiday, you’d like to take the subway in Zhengzhou, Henan, you’ll be greeted with this line-up that stretches down the road:

If you take the subway in Guangzhou, you may encounter a lineup like this:

If you’re thinking about driving out of the city, you may experience some slight congestion:

Motorists have reported it’s taking as long as three hours and 15 minutes just to get out of Beijing. While in Shenzhen, there is currently a six kilometre traffic jam on the Humen Highway. Apparently cars on the highway to Shantou haven’t moved in an hour.

Traffic is so slow in Nanjing drivers can hop out and play a game of badminton while they wait for cars to start moving.

China has many beautiful locations and tourist attractions. The problem is, everyone visits them at the same time. These photos offer an idea of just how bad it gets:

If you’re enjoying your National Day holidays at home, keep enjoying them.

Photos: Information Times, Xinhua, China Network Television, Asia Today, Many Things that Even Guangzhou Residents Don’t Know, CCTV