Last week a northern China highway virtually became a parking area when around 10,000 trucks became stuck in a 120 kilometre jam.

Traffic police in Inner Mongolia were kept busy trying to untangle the traffic mess in which trucks on the Beijing-Tibet highway were only able to inch forward bumper-to-bumper.

The trucks, most of them loaded high with coal, were caught up in maintenance work which had begun on a parallel route earlier in the summer season.

Traffic jams have since plagued the major stretch of road connecting the coal-rich city of Erdos to Jining in Inner Mongolia.

The latest snarl-up on the highway lasted for more than 20 days, causing a gridlock that extended for more than 100 kilometres.