In October, traffic on the highway leading to one of the world’s largest ports by cargo throughput was unusually light.
In past years, the roads leading to the Ningbo-Zhoushan port in East China’s Zhejiang province would have been packed in the week leading up to the Oct. 1 National Day holiday, the peak season for shipping, said Wang Lei, executive vice president at Safewell Group Holdings (China) Co. Ltd., a manufacturer and exporter of safes and telecom products. “Traffic jams were unavoidable,” Wang told Caixin in October. “Now, there are barely any cars.”