Tourists sleeping in a toilet in Anhui province’s Huangshan mountain range. -SCREENGRAB FROM WEIBO
BEIJING (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Travellers in China have taken to sleeping in toilets and restaurants as the surge in “revenge travel” over the Labour Day break leaves hotels and tourist hotspots struggling to cope with the crush of tourists.
A widely circulated video on Chinese social media showed domestic tourists snoozing shoulder-to-shoulder in a public toilet near one of the summits of Huangshan in Anhui province, one of China’s most popular tourist destinations.
It was too late to go down the mountain, and because hotels were full, the tourists had hunkered down in the toilet, according to the video, which cited a staff member from the tourist area.
In one of the videos, a voice can be heard reminding users to refrain from affecting others using the toilet should they insist on sleeping there.
Dozens of university students have also been photographed taking advantage of hotpot business Haidilao’s long opening hours by using the chain’s outlets as free lodging to save on hotel bills, according to Chinese media.
It has sparked discussion on Chinese social media, with netizens urging students to leave the restaurant for customers.
A WeChat post by the Heilongjiang province’s Communist Youth League showed pictures of pieces of luggage parked outside a Haidilao outlet in Nanjiang, adding that the practice of using Haidilao outlets as free accommodation is gaining traction.
The post also cited a spokesman for the restaurant that said the crowds had slowed business there, adding that their proximity to the nearby Purple Mountain, or Zijin Shan, made it attractive to guests looking to catch the sunrise.
Millions of Chinese travellers have thronged major cities and sightseeing spots over the nation’s Labour Day holiday from April 29 to Wednesday, in what is the first normal holiday period after pandemic restrictions were scrapped in December.
This year’s Labour Day break – traditionally one of China’s busiest travel seasons – is seen as a bellwether for recovery of the tourism industry and the wider Chinese economy, battered from after three years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
More than 159 million trips were made by car, rail, plane and waterways in the first three days of the five-day holiday, according to data from the Transport Ministry cited by the People’s Daily, up 162 per cent from the same period in 2022.
Prior to the anticipated travel rush, some cities have cautioned would-be visitors about overcrowding as domestic tourism rebounds after Beijing ended Covid-19 curbs.
Chinese social media was inundated with photos and videos of people crammed into public transport and huge throngs of people at tourist hotspots.
The hashtag “how everywhere is crowded” was the lead trending topic on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo on Tuesday morning.
Crowd levels are “gradually becoming ridiculous”, wrote one netizen, while another in Guangdong province suggested touring a war cemetery instead to avoid the masses, Bloomberg reported.
Tourist hotspots in the capital Beijing, the ancient city of Xi’an and other attractions including Dali, a historical town in China’s southern Yunnan province, drew snaking queues.
On Saturday afternoon, Wuhan’s Yellow Crane Tower was forced to stop selling tickets after hitting its peak capacity of 90 per cent.
Shoppers were out in force on Monday too, with major retail and catering companies witnessing sales expand 15.6 per cent from a year ago, according to Ministry of Commerce data cited by state broadcaster CCTV, after similar jumps over the weekend.
