These Will Be China's 50 Most Crowded Spots During Golden Week

By Bailey Hu

This year, China's Mid-Autumn Festival falls on October 4, lengthening the usual Golden Week holiday to an eight-day break.

According to Southcn.com, a staggering 700 million people are expected to travel this year, an increase of over a 100 million from last year's estimate. In other words, if you thought the crowds were bad in 2016, prepare yourself for worse.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on your plans), online travel agency Ctrip has put together a list of the estimated 50 'most crowded domestic tourist areas' this National Day using data collected from its platform.

If you haven't made plans yet – what have you been doing all month? – be sure to at least avoid these places. And if you've already booked tickets to see one or more of the following sites... we wish you the best.

Mountains

Scenic Huangshan gets swamped

• Huangshan

• Mount Tai

• Zhangjiajie

• Mount Hua

• Mount Emei

• Mount Song

• Yuntai Mountain

• Mount Putuo

• Mount Qingcheng

• Baiyun Mountain

Cultural Heritage

• Forbidden City

• West Lake

• Terra-cotta warriors

• Gulang Island

• Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum

• Dujiangyan

• Old Summer Palace

• Tang Paradise

• Xi’an City Wall

• Yellow Crane Tower

Ancient Towns

• Old Town of Lijiang

• Wuzhen

• Fenghuang Ancient City

• Hongcun (Anhui)

• Pingyao Ancient City

• Zhenyuan Ancient Town

• Tai’erzhuang Ancient Town

• Langzhong Ancient City

• Beijing WTown (a Wuzhen replica)

• Tongli Ancient Town

Urban Attractions

• Oriental Pearl Tower

• Bird’s Nest Stadium

• Splendid China Folk Village

• Window of the World

• Hengdian World Studios

• Shanghai World Financial Center

• ‘Eye of Qindao’ ferris wheel

• Venice of the East Water Town (Dalian)

• East OCT (Shenzhen)

• Canton Tower
  

Amusement Parks

• Shanghai Disneyland

• Happy Valley Beijing

• Shenzhen Safari Park

• Chimelong Safari Park

• China Dinosaurs Park (Hangzhou)

• Wanda Theme Park (Hefei)

• Qingdao Underwater World

• Chongqing Garden Expo

• Chengdu Zoo

• Tiger Beach Ocean Park (Dalian)
  

For some reason the Great Wall didn't make it onto the list, but we'll go ahead and name it honorary number 51.

And for the bonus round, Ctrip also compiled a top 10 most popular list of free-to-visit destinations.

Free Attractions

• West Lake

• The Bund

• Beijing’s Shichahai

• Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum

• Fenghuang Ancient Town

• Dali Ancient Town

• Three Gorges Dam

• Changsha’s Orange Isle

• Fuzhou’s Sanfang Qixiang

• Sanya’s Yalong Bay

Happy travels!

[Images via China.com, Hexun.com, Takefoto.cn, News.ifeng.com, Tencent, Weibo]

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