In a society that strongly emphasizes guanxi (connections), festivals provide the best chance to develop and maintain relationships through giving gifts, but they also facilitate corruption. The worst congestion Beijing has suffered in a year has once again focused people's attention on "holiday corruption."

The capital suffered the heaviest traffic congestion of the year Tuesday, with rain making the situation worse. As the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holidays approach, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation warned Monday that congestion in the capital will reach its peak this week.

Like Beijing, other big cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, and also major cities that are political and business hubs, are also suffering heavy traffic before the holiday. Congestion is already a daily problem in some cities, exacerbated by increasing numbers of cars or poor road design. However, people driving across cities with gifts aimed at boosting their guanxi is worsening the situation.

It's also reported that moon cakes made with gold and silver are selling well these days.  One salesperson told the Chinese Economic Weekly that the gold moon cakes, priced at 47,620 yuan ($7,557) and silver ones at a price of 850 yuan ($135) per package, are favored by many enterprises, some of which even purchase thousands of them at a time.

Efforts to curb holiday corruption have been promoted for many years. Some local governments have even issued bans on exorbitantly expensive cigarettes or alcohol, but it's only a superficial measure.  While some also forbid civil servants from accepting "gifts" and attending social banquets before holidays, the implementation of these regulations has turned out to be rather difficult. 

Holiday gifts are easily used as a form of bribery. This has become a tacit consensus of society, but many are involved in PR battles before the holidays for personal or business interests, which poses a challenge to clean governance by relevant authorities.

But there is one silver lining: holiday gifts can also be used in anti-corruption efforts. In recent years, luxury products worn by officials and extraordinarily high bills for official banquets have led to exposure of the corruption of some officials. We hope these cases can act as a deterrent for corrupt officials.