This is why they build walls around cities

Planning on staying in Shanghai for the upcoming National Day holiday? Good luck! From the Shanghai Daily:

About 83.48 million people will visit Shanghai during the week-long National Day holiday, Youth Daily reported Tuesday, citing the Shanghai transport authority. The busiest day will be the National Day, October 1, when about 13.42 million people will hit the city's streets.

The authority expects 3.4 million people to use the city's 40,000 cabs on the National Day and 2.24 million to take the city's four Metro lines.

Put another way ... that's 83.48 MILLION PEOPLE! Shanghaiist suggests you buy some DVDs, stock up the fridge, hunker down, ride out the storm and next year remember to plan ahead and leave the country during the holiday (easier said that done, we know, because the Chinese national holidays aren't announced until days before the holiday begins -- we've never understood this). The Shanghai Daily also mentions that although the holiday runs from October 1-7, most Chinese must then work on the weekend of October 8-9. We've never understood this, either.

UPDATE: To anyone who was f*cked by the blocking of traffic on Huaihai Lu for the Mid-Autumn Festival parade earlier this month, this plan sounds like a nightmare:

Shanghai will shut down traffic on some downtown streets to make room for pedestrians to see buildings decorated with colorful lights from Friday to Sunday.

The restrictions will last from 4:30pm to 11pm every day. People are not allowed to walk onto fly-overs or tunnels in these areas, the report said.

The following areas will be affected:

And then they went on to list just about every major street in the city. At least October is usually good weather for walking.