During the huge crossover of the May 1st holidays, the first post-Covid holidays, hundreds of millions of travelers travel through China and rush to tourist sites.
Normally it’s a rather peaceful and bucolic place, but since this weekend, the Shechahai Lakes, in the heart of Beijing, have turned into a real tourist hell. Hundreds of thousands of vacationers, glued to each other, struggle to move forward in the small shopping streets and neighboring Hutongs (small urban neighborhoods with narrow passages). In China, Wednesday May 3 marks the end of five days off marked by manys incredible human tides everywhere in major cities and around major Chinese tourist sites. VSt is the first time that the Chinese have really found their way back to vacation since the end of the covid.
>>> “Like a release” after the Covid-19, Chinese tourists flock to the tropical island of Hainan
Armed with loudspeakers, the police try as best they can to manage this presence on the shores of the Shechahai lakes to prevent crowd movements from degenerating. This couple of tourists from the city of Chongqing still tries to enjoy. After an already difficult first day on Tuesday at the Great Wall of China.“I took my girlfriend to the Great Wall, but there were too many people and a lot of traffic. Our bus was stuck for two hours without moving. On the wall, people were jostling, they were arriving in all directions. the senses. We couldn’t even take a picture together.“.
More Great Wall tickets
Same observation for this mother who came with her two children from Jiangsu province, in southern China. “We went to the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, wherever there are too many people. But it deserves to come because it’s the first time that the children travel to Beijing. They are super happy and excited. For the Great Wall, I saw the long queue on videos. I didn’t want to take the risk because with children, safety is always the priority.”
There are no more tickets available for the Great Wall, and the climb to this iconic monument has turned into a nightmare. The crush scenes are repeated everywhere. Near Chengdu it takes several hours of waiting to visit the panda reserve. Hundreds of millions of vacationers tried to return home, with no guarantee of success as the stations were crowded.
After three years of health restrictions, this crowd is an incredible boon for traders. Like this seller of mutton skewers who never stops working. “More than 50,000 visitors a day pass by my store while on vacation. The first two days, they even had to limit the number of visitors at the metro exits. It’s very good for our business. I sold 500 skewers a day and had to call on five employees to help me.”
In the desert of northwest China, the crowds of vacationers have even caused camel traffic jams. In a video that made the buzz on social networks, we see a long queue with more than 2,400 camels ridden by tourists.