Expressway toll exempted in regions during holiday

Authorities in eight provincial regions in China have decided to open up their tolled expressways for free to speed up traffic for millions of travelers heading home for family reunions during the Spring Festival.

The most important annual holiday in China will see hundreds of millions of Chinese leave their working place and reunite with family in their native hometown.

Expressway toll exemptions are practiced in regions including Hebei province and Inner Mongolia autonomous region in the north, Henan province in the central, Shandong province in the east, and Shaanxi province and Ningxia Hui autonomous region in the northwest.

The toll-free time in those regions will mainly last for two days from the Lunar New Year's Eve on Sunday to the night of the Spring Festival, with the expressways in Inner Mongolia, where traffic congestion is common at expressways, opening for free until Jan. 26.

However, cars on the expressways in Beijing, the national capital, and Tianjin, the major port city in north China, are still subject to toll during the period of time.

In the past two days, some 80 million Chinese hit the road every day traveling home to reunite with their families.