A drone pans across the Wuzhuang Toll Station in Anhui and all you see is red—thousands of taillights spread across 36 lanes that compress into four. Holiday drivers are pouring out of China’s National Day/Mid-Autumn “Golden Week” and into a forced merge that defeats momentum. Local reports pegged well over 120,000 vehicles passing the plaza on the final day. Nationwide, Golden Week tallied ~888 million domestic trips and about ¥809 billion (~$114B) in spending, a surge strong enough to overwhelm even the country’s biggest toll station. The pictures feel unreal; the geometry explains everything.
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