The Great Wall of China‘s most visited and populous Badaling section gets a daily cap on the number of visitors that can enter this section. By Swastika Mukhopadhyay
Over tourism and overcrowding is quite usual at the Great Wall of China especially during holidays and weekends. The Badaling section, which is known to be the most popular part of the Great Wall of China is visited by a huge number of local and international tourists. In an attempt to combat overcrowding, the authorities proposed to set up a daily limit of 65,000 visitors that can visit the great landmark on a single day. The quota was put into effect from June 1, 2019.
“The number of tourists visiting the Badaling Great Wall Scenic Area is enormous,” Chen Fei, deputy director of the Badaling District Office was quoted saying to the Radio Beijing Corporation.
According to statistics, the Badaling section received a shocking number of 10 million visitors last year, which comes out to be 27,000 visitors per day. This might be below the proposed limit but the actual issue resides with the imbalance in the distribution of tourists visiting the historical landmark.
With the maximum number of visitors recorded here on a day being 100,000 visitors, the Great Wall of China surely experiences overcrowding during the holidays and weekends. The visitor count on a weekday stands out to be 10,000 per day. “The number can be only a few thousand visitors during the off-season,” Chen said.
How Is This Proposal Implemented?
If you are planning to visit the Great Wall of China, you need to book your tickets seven days prior to your visit. The tickets should be purchased under your name. The authorities will keep the visitors notified of the congestion at the Badaling section. Also, they have put up some crowd management and control mechanisms at the area to ensure the free flow of the public. There are three levels of warning—a yellow warning when the number of visitors reaches 39,000 per day, orange warning for 52,000 visitors and a red warning when the number of visitors strikes 65,000.
Related: The Statue Of Liberty Takes A Step To Reduce Over-Tourism
