On August 14, 2010, National Highway 110, a major route connecting Beijing to Inner Mongolia, became a massive traffic bottleneck that stretched over 100 kilometers and trapped tens of thousands of vehicles for 12 days. The scene was surreal: trucks were stuck in place under the sun, with drivers sitting on the asphalt and playing cards between their wheels. This unusual traffic jam was the result of two poorly coordinated decisions. First, there was a sharp increase in the number of heavy trucks traveling from Inner Mongolia to Beijing, mainly carrying coal. At the same time, road construction began five days after the traffic surge, reducing the road’s capacity by half. The combination of too many trucks and too little road space created a situation that seemed almost designed to cause chaos. The road was already operating at 60% over its expected capacity, and the construction work only made the situation worse. Instead of waiting for the truck flow to decrease before starting repairs, authorities began the work immediately, compounding the congestion. The result was like a traffic jam that built itself up over time, similar to a champagne cork that is pushed in rather than pulled out. Drivers, unable to move, had to find ways to cope. Many slept in their trucks, and some organized themselves to play cards on the road. The prolonged immobility also created a parallel economy, with local businesses and villagers selling items like cigarettes, water, and instant noodles at high prices to stranded drivers. By August 25, 2010, a reporter from the French news agency AFP found that the traffic situation had improved, covering over 200 kilometers of the highway without encountering major jams. However, a gas station worker noted that while things seemed better, the underlying issues remained. The road construction continued until mid-September, and the flow of coal trucks to Beijing persisted. This ongoing problem prompted Chinese authorities to take action in the following year. They revised road regulations, introducing stricter weight limits for heavy trucks and harsher penalties for violations to prevent such a crisis from happening again. In the years that followed, efforts were made to reduce the reliance on trucks for transporting coal by shifting more of the burden to rail transport. This helped ease the pressure on roads that were not designed to handle such a massive volume of heavy vehicles. The 2010 traffic jam on National Highway 110 remains a cautionary tale of how poor planning and coordination can lead to large-scale disruptions, even in a rapidly growing economy like China’s.