A short trip highlights a huge traffic problem

It's 6 am on a freezing Beijing winter morning. I roll out of bed with a groan to take the first cold step of a trip to get out of the capital for a while.

I trudge through the snow-blanketed streets toward the main road in a bid to hail one of Beijing's 60,000 taxis to complete the short 4-km journey.

The roads are at a standstill and 50 minutes tick by. With my hands blue and face numb, the will to travel anywhere is slowly ebbing away when I see a taxi pulling up to drop off passengers.