Top attractions in China have been overloaded with tourists since the weeklong national holiday started last weekend, calling into question whether the world's second largest economy is ready to support quality tourism for those wishing to tour the country on vacation, reports Chinese-langauge newspaper the Nanfang Daily.

The National Holiday Office of the National Tourism Administration said that, as of Wednesday, a total of 119 monitored scene spots around the country received 6,043,000 visitors, a 30.64% increase from last year. Waves of tourists have gotten stuck on their way to a number of popular scene spots, including the Forbidden City in Beijing, Mount Lu in Jiangxi province in southeastern China, Mount Hua in Shaanxi province in northern China, Mount Tai in northern province of Shandong, and Gulangyu Island in southern province of Fujian.

The Forbidden City has embraced 182,000 visitors since the holiday began, breaking its previous record, while a serious traffic jam occurred on the roads to Mount Lu, with cars trailing for 20 kilometers.

A number of tourists asked for help on Tuesday evening on the internet, saying about 2,000 people remained at Mount Hua for three hours and clashed with the authorities for tickets refunds. The authorities apologized later on its official microblog for delayed notice of the overloading. Police, rescue teams and volunteers went to the mountain to help the trapped tourists going home.

The visitors to Mount Lu reached 48,500, which increased 11% compared with the same period last year.

An internet user "ELPH_d" reported on the Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service in China, that in the first three days of the holiday, more than 10,000 tourists in Lijiang of Yunnan province could not find a hotel to stay, while the beach in Sanya in Hainan province has become a dump from the stream of people — and their trash — visiting there.

Sichuan province in China's southwest estimated that 21 local scene spots have welcomed 452,200 visitors in the past few days.

Many scene spots have been overwhelmed with the swarms of visitors, while visitors have been often to fulfill basic dining and boarding needs. "We had to wait for more than 100 tables for a meal," a tourist surnamed Wang said in Suzhou in the southern province of Jiangsu.

In order to manage crowds of visitors, Zhouzhuang, a historic town in Jiangsu province, dispatched free buses to transport the visitors, while the Lu Mountain decided to temporarily offering free entrances.

The tourism authority in Jiangsu province said the demand for tourism has surged because the annual weeklong holiday got underway earlier than usual this year with the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival falling on Sunday.

The visitor jams in the attractions highlight a fact that people are longing for vacations as their incomes increase. The government has to improve the quality of tourism through well-designed systems, an analyst told the newspaper.

References:

Forbidden City　　紫禁城

Mount Lu　　廬山

Mount Hua　　華山

Mount Tai　　泰山

Gulangyu　　鼓浪嶼

Lijiang　　麗江

Sanya　　三亞

Zhouzhuang　　周莊