Stress levels soared as thousands of holidaymakers heading home in China got trapped in massive traffic jams.
One of the biggest happened just outside the capital city on the G4 Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway, and started about 2pm (local time).
The gridlock was reportedly caused by a combination of a new checkpoint - which reduced the number of lanes on the motorway from about 50 to 20 - and foggy weather.
Motorways in other cities, including Shanghai and Nanjing, also experienced serious congestion.
An estimated 750 million people were expected to travel on China's road between October 1 and 7, the "Golden Week" celebration around China's National Day.