Beijing

Three years of COVID-19 curbs have led to a 'pent-up' demand amongst Chinese tourists. Millions are now taking full advantage of the Labour Day break and 'revenge travelling', as hotels and tourist hotspots struggle to cope with the rush of tourists. Videos on Chinese social media platforms show domestic travellers sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder, in a public toilet near one of the summits of Huangshan in Anhui province, one of China’s most popular tourist destinations.

Advertisment

According to a staff member, the tourists anchored themselves in the toilet as it was too late to go down the mountain and hotels were full, leaving no option for them to spend the night. 

Seeing the mass migration of the population to enjoy the holiday weekend, the hashtag “how everywhere is crowded” remained a top trending topic on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform on Tuesday morning. Chinese netizens shared images and videos of huge crowds at the popular tourist destination whit few saying the situation was "gradually becoming ridiculous". 

“This is the first day of my holiday and as the first stop I chose the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, because I heard the Badaling section is too crowded. But here there are a lot of people as well. This morning I left at eight from the tourist centre and we arrived here at five in the afternoon. The traffic on the way here was also terrible," Wang Yingli, a 26-year-old tourist from Shaanxi was quoted as saying by Reuters. 

Advertisment

WATCH | Travel boosts in China after years of curbs

×

Another tourist added, “This is the first time I come to Mutianyu. Many years ago, I went to Badaling. I was worried that that section would be too crowded and I chose to come here instead, but the crowd here is huge as well. I came here to take some pictures.”

Advertisment

China set to break records

According to data released by the Chinese Transport Ministry, more than 159 million trips were made via car, airplane, rail and waterways in the first three days of the five-day holiday weekend, which was an increase of a whopping 162 per cent from the same period last year. 

National operator China Railway Group Ltd. expects to hit a record 120 million passengers between April 27 to May 4 — the so-called Golden Week period. Daily average trips across the country have already reached pre-pandemic levels set in 2019. 

More tourists mean more revenue for the companies. According to the Ministry of Commerce data, major retail and catering companies reported a 15.6 per cent jump in sales on Monday from a year ago. 

China was the ground zero of the pandemic and one of the last countries to let go of the restrictions. The country under President Xi Jinping employed a zero-Covid tolerance policy which created horrific scenes. It was only in December last year that the communist regime lifted the draconian policy. 

ALSO READ | COVID-19 cases reportedly rising in China. A matter of global concern?

After a relative period of normalcy, cases started to increase in mainland China earlier this week. On Wednesday, the Chinese authorities urged the citizens to be cautious and also instructed hospitals to be on high alert as the holiday weekend approached. 

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE: