China has a strange way of celebrating Car Free Day.

Yesterday was the day people were supposed to ride public transit or bicycle to their destination, but instead major cities in China saw huge traffic jams. The worst were in Beijing, Xi’an, Hangzhou, and Zhengzhou, reports CCTV.

These photographs show traffic around China yesterday during Car Free Day. Organizers of the annual event say the slogan is “our streets, our choice”. It looks like Chinese city dwellers have definitely made theirs.

It’s not all bad, though. In a sign of development, Chinese people have finally realized the dream of complaining about traffic while sitting idle behind the wheel. 

Photos: CCTV, Youth.cn

While the capital is already infamous for its traffic congestion, September is expected to be absolute worst month due to the Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day, the beginning of the school year, fall promotions in malls, and visiting relatives.

In fact, the Beijing Municipal Commission on Transport can even pinpoint particular days to avoid. They are September 4, 5, 15, 22, 26 and 28, 29 and 30.

To try to combat the girdlock, local authorities will be trying a bunch of different strategies including launching a Public Transportation Promotion Week, No Car Days, new private bus lines, and shortening the length between subway cars to just three minutes on Beijing Metro Line 6 between 5pm and 7pm,

[h/t WSJ China Real Time]

Photo: etu6

Shenzhen traffic police reported that traffic for access routes to Daxiao Meisha and Dapeng were congested with “rush hour conditions” for ten hours from June 1 until yesterday morning. 256,000 cars were said to have been involved in a traffic jam 14 kilometers long.

720,000 commuters took the Guangzhou Metro on June 2, a 15% rise from last year. May 31 was also a traffic heavy day with 650,000 commuters.

But getting there is only half the fun; just ask the record-breaking 16,000 visitors that descended upon Dameisha Seaside Public Park. The only reason so many people would choose to crowd together so densely must be because they obviously enjoy each other’s company, like so:

All of this price came at a cost, however. A closer look at the swarms of holiday-goers revealed a grubbier side:

However, crowds don’t always have negative connotations, especially when everyone’s favorite endangered species-a la commodity of cuteness made a mass appearance at the Canton Tower in Guangzhou:

Oh, endangered panda: you’ll never over-populate us with the cuddleness you provide!

Photo: Shenzhen Evening Report via Weibo (2), China Daily via Weibo, Shenzhen Traffic Police via Weibo, China Guangzhou Information Dissemintation via Weibo, Guangzhou Daily via Weibo

Starting May 19, a initiative had begun to penalize any driver that blocks the passage of an emergency vehicle in Shenzhen with fines of RMB 300 and three points deducted from their driver’s license. Yesterday, eight drivers were caught and fined for obstructing ambulances.

In similar fashion, a rear-mounted camera in the interior of the ambulance will collect video evidence to help settle any confrontations that should arise between patients and paramedics.

Previous cases of ambulance obstruction as well as assault on medical staff have been dismissed as no video evidence was collected.

Chen, a veteran ambulance driver, said that ambulances are normally blocked in Shenzhen:

Over 98% of drivers do not get out of the way for us. There is simply no concept of this in the minds of city residents.

The use of video cameras will also be prominently used in an online traffic monitoring system set to debut in Shenzhen next year.

Users will be able to access traffic conditions throughout the city updated every five minutes and be able to plan necessary detours, reports the Shenzhen Standard. Traffic will graded on a scale from one to five. GPS tracking devices in taxis will aid in determining the volume of traffic.

Photo: iFeng

• Crossing the border into Hong Kong? Peak hours everyday take place between 8:30 and 11am, and 7 and 10pm, so arrive at another time or be prepared to line up.
• Both the Shenzhen Metro will run late on Thursday until 12am midnight, while the Guangzhou Metro will extend operations by one hour.
• The Shenzhen Railway Station will run additional trains: there will be an extra train to Shaoguan on Wednesday and Thursday, and an extra train to Yueyang on Wednesday and Friday.
• Provincial highways will be toll-free for the duration of the holiday.
• A discount is being offered on non-peak flights for the holidays. For example, the lowest priced flight of Singapore Air from May 1 to July 12 is 1200 yuan.
• The holiday return peak time will be from 10am-10pm on Saturday. Expect us to publish photos of crazy line-ups and queues from this time period next week.

Remember: it’s back to work on Sunday, May 4 for a six day work week from May 4-9.

Photo: China News

If you were stuck in traffic in around the Yuexiu District of Guangzhou yesterday, then you should know there’s a perfectly good reason for it: someone has a grievance with their village council, and you need to be inconvenienced because of it.

On the morning of April 9 at around 8am, a man later identified as Mr Liang climbed up a traffic sign at Xiaobei Road and North Military Drill Road. Dressed in red and wearing a hat, the man was brandishing a metal rod and a drink, as though he had planned to be up there for a long time.

Whenever police or firefighters would draw near, Liang would brandish his metal rod to force his back, reported Nandu. Liang’s actions had drawn a lot of attention and caused a huge backup of traffic in the area, especially with ongoing construction in the area.

It was finally at around 11:14am when an unidentified man dressed in blue managed to get past the police cordon and climb up the traffic sign to join Liang. Perhaps a soldier out of uniform or Jack Reacher on his Asia tour, the unidentified man in blue was able to quickly and easily subdue and disarm Liang.

Pictures show a hand-to-hand confrontation worthy of any action movie climax:

After being subdued by the man in blue, firefighters would use a cherry picker to lower the two men down to the ground.

The man in red was immediately arrested and identified as Mr Liang, 41, from Huadu, Guangzhou. His family is said to have an unresolved grievance with his local village committee, and has taken his protest to the provincial capital. Liang had previously inconvenienced commuters by climbing signs and protesting at Dongfeng Road and Jiangwan Daqiao.

After performing his civic duty, the mysterious man in blue disappeared as swiftly as he appeared, not even leaving behind his name, possibly to reappear wherever protesters may cause face-losing incidents.

Photos: Nandu

It is said that in the early days of Guangzhou’s road construction, lanes on main roads were 3.75m wide, but on roads built more recently the lanes are 3.5m.

“The plan can work if lanes on main roads are narrowed from 3.75m to 3.25m and the width of greenbelts, isolation strips and sidewalks are adjusted” said Zeng ying, an engineer who was part of the investigation.

He said Guangzhou traffic police suggested narrowing the width of lanes from 3.75 to 3.25 in 2009, but the proposal was not accepted because the national standard for the width of a lane on a main road was 3.5m at that time.