Monumental Crowds

Dense crowds of tourists covered the Great Wall of China over the National Holiday, with the Badaling section alone attracting 81,000 visitors on October 3. Similar scenes of grinding congestion at China’s top scenic sites, the National Tourist Association said a total of 34.25 million people visited the country’s 119 top tourist sites. The government’s lifting of tolls for the holidays for the first time in a decade also boosted congestion on roads, leading to public criticism of the new policy. Over 80 million people traveled by road each day of the holiday, according to the Ministry of Transportation.