Number of tourists visiting the Great Wall of China last weekend more of a sight than the wall itself
The crowded image above might appear to be another pro-democracy rally like we’ve been seeing a lot of in Hong Kong recently, but actually it’s just business as usual for a historic landmark on a long holiday.
With 1 October being National Day in China, people are taking advantage of their one week off to head on down to one of the most famous World Heritage Sites around. However, since a considerable amount of people share the same holiday plans, for one week this testament to mankind’s engineering prowess is eclipsed by a testament to mankind’s determination for sightseeing.
These photos were taken on 3 October during the peak visiting days for the Great Wall. On this day a reported 8.75 million people flowed across the wall’s top like molasses on a frosty autumn’s morning.
This was higher than last year’s turnout by about 10,000 people and is said to be the highest attendance in five years. Over the entire holiday period an expected 16 million people were expected.
As we can see in some of the photos, visitors seem fairly upbeat considering their circumstances. Many times people can be spotted taking photos of the sheer number of visitors rather than the scenery or wall itself.
And here on our left you can see a security guard in way over his head.
In conclusion, we can safely say that unless you’re really a people person, you should probably steer clear of visiting the Great Wall of China on or around 1 October. If you’re looking for a more convenient time, we recommend 1907. Things seemed way more chilled-out back then.
Source: 163.com (Chinese) via Toychan Net (Japanese)
1907 Image: Wikipedia – Herbert Ponting
