During the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday in China, many tourist destinations on the mainland experienced severe congestion due to an influx of visitors, leading to dissatisfaction among tourists. In particular, the Yanmen Pass scenic area saw a large number of visitors shouting “refund” in protest.
A viral video circulating online showed crowded conditions at the Yanmen Pass scenic area, with people shouting “refund.” The incident of “tourists stranded at Yanmen Pass shouting for refunds” quickly became a hot topic. According to some visitors, the scenic area does not allow visitors to drive up the mountain themselves. Instead, visitors must park their cars in designated parking lots and take shuttle buses provided by the scenic area to reach the mountaintop.
One netizen posted, “With a burning desire to visit Yanmen Pass, you rejected me eight kilometers away, moving at a speed of one kilometer per hour, and in the end, I had to request a refund and leave.” However, other visitors noted, “We arrived at 8:05 am and descended at 11:00 am without experiencing any traffic congestion.”
In response to the situation, staff at the Yanmen Pass scenic area told Jiqi News that on the 3rd, it was the tourists at the south gate who demanded refunds. They had not anticipated such a large number of people at the south gate before, and the drivers were afraid to open the car doors as the crowd would surge in once they did. More than 20 additional vehicles were urgently dispatched to address the issue.
On the evening of the 3rd, there were also reports of tourists being stranded at the cable car queue at Mount Hua, with some claiming they did not descend until nearly midnight.
“We waited in line for five hours, while some people waited for seven hours,” said Ms. Cui. She arrived near the North Peak cable car queue around 6:50 pm on October 3 and only boarded the cable car close to midnight.
On October 4, Mount Hua Scenic Area announced that it would temporarily close its pedestrian hiking trails starting from 6:00 pm. The staff at the scenic area mentioned that unused tickets could be fully refunded upon request, with the cable cars operating normally and decisions to reopen the hiking trails dependent on weather conditions.
A prominent Weibo user, “Foodie’s Dream of Picking Up the Fat,” pointed out that previously the Honghe Gorge Drift scenic area and Zhangjiajie National Forest Park had also encountered similar difficulties. These incidents have once again exposed the systemic shortcomings in the management of the tourism industry.