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Fact Check: 2015 Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway Traffic Jam Image Viral with Misleading Claims

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Recently, a picture showing massive traffic jam has been doing the rounds on social media. Many social media users have shared the image, claiming it to be one of the biggest traffic jams in the history of the world on China’s Beijing-Tibet Expressway in August 2010.

A Facebook user posted the viral image with the caption: পৃথিবীর ইতিহাসে অন্যতম বড় ট্যাফিক জ্যাম! #TrafficJam #Kolkata #IndiaKolkataCity (English translation: One of the biggest traffic jams in the history of the world! #TrafficJam #Kolkata #IndiaKolkataCity)

You can find the image here.

The translated version of the Bangla text on the image reads: Tired of being stuck in a traffic jam for 10 minutes? Do you know, one of the biggest traffic jams in the history of the world happened in August 2010 on the Beijing-Tibet Expressway in China. Cars were standing in line in this 100-km-long jam. It took about 10 days to clear the road. Basically, this huge traffic jam happened due to road construction and lorries standing in line on both sides.

FACT CHECK

NewsMobile fact-checked the viral image, and found it to be misleading. 

Running a Reverse Image Search, we found a picture in the Alamy website a British stock photography agency with a title: Aerial view of masses of cars travelling back to Beijing in a traffic jam on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway during the week-long National Day, dated October 6, 2015, which matches exactly with the viral image. 

According to the description of the image, it is from 2015, taken on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway.

A Google Keyword Search also led us to an ABC News report, dated October 9, 2015, having a title: Thousands of Cars Stuck in Beijing Traffic Jam on 50-Lane Highway. The article confirms that the picture, indeed, belongs to the 2015 Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway traffic jam. Thousands of commuters were stuck for hours on the highway, while heading back home after the end of the Golden Week, celebrated to commemorate the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The image in the article matches exactly with the viral image as well.

Also, a drone-shot video of the traffic jam, dated October 7, 2015, had been published on YouTube. The video shows a bottleneck from a nearly 50-lane highway to an approximately 20-lane one (due to construction work on the road) as soon as the cars were crossing the toll, thereby, causing an insane traffic jam.

Similar articles had been published on Bloomberg, Forbes, China Daily, and The Straits Times as well. 

Finally, we searched for the Beijing-Tibet traffic Jam in 2010. While the traffic jam did occur, owing to construction on the highway (among many other factors), we could not find a single news article linking the viral image to the traffic jam, thereby, confirming that the viral image shows the jam on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway in 2015.

Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral image showing a massive traffic jam on the Beijing-Tibet expressway in 2010 is misleading.

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