Recently, the drifting scenic area of Shamu River in Shibing County, Guizhou, faced a situation of large numbers of tourists being stranded until the early hours of the morning due to the failure to control the visitor flow effectively. This led to discontent among the tourists, with cries of “refund” echoing throughout the scene.
Shamu River drifting is located in Baitang Village, Guan Town, Shibing County, Southeast Guizhou, with a total length of over forty kilometers. On August 3rd, many netizens took to social media to complain about the chaotic management of the scenic area’s services.
According to netizens, on August 2nd, the Shamu River drifting scenic area experienced queues lasting over 5 hours, poor mobile phone signal reception, delayed shuttle services, and many people had to wait dry at the scenic area until the early hours of the morning before they could leave. It was evident that the scenic area did not effectively control the visitor flow.
Another netizen expressed, “Waited in line for 4 hours and then spent another 6 hours waiting for a bus back at night, the management system is extremely poor.”
“Driving back to Guiyang at 3 o’clock in the morning, the experience was a disaster: only three lanes at the ticket checkpoint, the tickets had to be verified one by one according to the booking orders; the shuttle bus line extended for hundreds of meters… no one maintaining order; had to pick up life jackets, inflate boats, paddle by ourselves; children had to walk from the drifting location to the finish point by themselves; the exit disorder was even more chaotic, with over a thousand tourists stranded,” criticized a netizen, “They knew their reception capacity was insufficient but still wanted to make money.”
A viral video shows a large number of tourists gathering at the scene in the dark night, with the sound of “refund” echoing repeatedly. In the video, a man couldn’t help but sigh, “It’s too chaotic, too chaotic.”
In the early hours of August 3rd, the Shamu River drifting scenic area issued an apology letter, stating that they will strengthen real-time monitoring and prediction of visitor numbers, make early warning preparations, provide systematic training for staff to enhance their ability to deal with emergencies, increase shuttle bus capacity, and reduce visitor waiting times.
The Department of Culture and Tourism responded to Jiupai News, stating that crowd control measures have been implemented and refunds are being processed for affected tourists.
However, as revealed by netizens, “They only refunded a small number of people, lacking sincerity.”