Millions stuck in traffic jams as roads go toll-free for holiday

Roads turned into virtual car parks. Motorists walked their dogs, stretched their legs, amused themselves playing games or blogged about the frustrating start to their eight-day break.

A bid by authorities to stimulate the economy by suspending road tolls for the "golden week" holiday brought huge tailbacks across the mainland yesterday as almost 86 million travellers took to the roads. That's 13.3 per cent more than on the first day of the National Day holiday last year.

From midnight on Saturday until midnight this Sunday - the duration of the combined holiday for yesterday's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day - passenger vehicles carrying up to seven people are exempt from paying tolls.

It's the first time in decades that the government has suspended the notoriously high tolls for a major public holiday, with the move coming as consumption falls amid slowing economic growth.

The authorities estimate 740 million road journeys will be made during the holiday, and the toll-free policy was certainly embraced warmly by motorists. In major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Chengdu , many expressways and highways became severely clogged with traffic.

One traveller blogged that he could only move 200 metres in an hour on the Zhengzhou to Shijiazhuang expressway in Henan province. Others said the queue of cars on the Guangzhou to Shenzhen expressway was 40 kilometres long.