China s major scenic spots were overcrowded with visitors on Tuesday and Wednesday as a tourism explosion has swept across the country during the Golden Week holidays from Sept. 30 to Oct. 8. To promote consumption in the tourism market Chinese authorities have issued new policies to exempt passenger cars from highway toll fees and for ticket price cuts at scenic spots during the eight-day holidays. In addition to the benefits the tourism explosion has also led to problems such as traffic congestion and overcrowding which has plagued tourism nationwide. Li Yunsheng a tour guide at Mount Lu in east China s Jiangxi Province had to keep his customers waiting for one to two hours for the shuttle bus to go to the next scenic spot due to a severe traffic jam. As a guide for a tourist group there is nothing I can do. Everybody has to wait here the bus just can t make it here in time he said. Li said due to the long distance between the scenic spots local agencies arranged shuttle buses to pick up the tourists who however complained a lot about the time-consuming journey caused by the heavy traffic. Some 5000 cars drive into the narrow mountain road at the Mount Lu area everyday according to sources. The route in the central scenic area only dozens of kilometers long would most probably lead to traffic be paralyzed as thousands of cars are crowded on road. Wudang Mountain a renowned Taoist mountain in central China s Hubei Province saw a wave of 429000 visitors on Wednesday hitting a record high. Local authorities have put an increased number of 220 shuttle buses to ease the pressure on traffic while extra personnel have been in place to keep order at the site. Usually our capacity for visitors is around 2000 per day. But during the National Day holidays we had 20000 visitors a day ten times as many as before said Chen Yilan general manager of the Taihe Cable Car Company. At Mount Hua in Sha anxi Province one of China s Five Great Mountains the number of daily visitors rose to 40000. At present the area has run out of capacity to receive any more visitor. Meanwhile at a scenic spot in north China s Shanxi Province that is renowned for its traditional architecture all of the hotels were occupied leaving some visitors to stay in their cars during the night. More downloads available at httpnewscontent.cctv.com �AA Copyright CCTV For any questions please call 86-10-63969499 or email cctvnewscontent.cctv.com -ampltmailtocctvnewscontent.cctv.com-ampgt If you want to learn more please go to the CCTV website at www.newscontent.cctv.com -amplthttpwww.newscontent.cctv.com-ampgt.

• published: 31 Oct 2013
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