Bumper-to-bumper again as epic China traffic jam returns

The traffic slowdown stretched to nearly 120 kilometres on a major highway through Inner Mongolia to Beijing.

A huge traffic snarl stretching at least 120 kilometres reappeared in northern China today with thousands of cargo trucks stuck in a bottleneck.

State television broadcast images of a long line of mostly cargo trucks inching slowly through Inner Mongolia on a major highway leading toward Beijing that has come to symbolise China's traffic gridlock problem.

"You could say the highway has become a big parking lot," a CCTV reporter at the scene said, estimating the number of vehicles stuck in the congestion at more than 10,000.

The stretch of highway linking Inner Mongolia and the northern province of Hebei with Beijing is among the nation's busiest as the capital of more than 20 million people sucks in huge shipments of goods