Traffic jams have begun over the weekend as the Chinese people begin to remember and honor their deceased family members and ancestors for the Qing Ming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day.
Cars lined up outside a cemetery in western Beijing Saturday morning. Police diverted cars into neighboring fields. In eastern Shanghai, two police helicopters oversaw the situation at expressways leading to a cemetery. Queues at some tollbooths stretched half a kilometer. Meanwhile, in the northeastern city of Harbin, about 150 thousand people visited their family members’ tombs Saturday. Police say traffic likely to be heavy throughout the first week of April.