If you plan on going sightseeing right now in China, you might want to reconsider. That is, unless you like huge crowds and being pressed up against strangers. If so, go now. And quick!
It's "National Day Golden Week" in China, which is a seven-day holiday that kicks off every year on October 1, the day the People's Republic of China was founded back in 1949.
Since it's a week-long holiday, it seems like the entire country goes on vacation, causing tourist sites to overflow with people. And since the Chinese government made national highways toll-free starting last year, the Golden Week holidays are leading to bigger and bigger traffic jams.
Here, you can see photos, courtesy of photojournalist Sean Gallagher and SkyNews' Mark Stone (both via Business Insider):
Train stations and airports are also packed with travellers.
Locations like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen get swamped with the most tourists—and can see well over a hundred thousand visitors each day.
But as Beijing-based Kotaku writer Eric Jou points out, not everywhere is crowded—the non-touristy areas can even seem dead. But where it is crowded, such as the tourist spots, it's wall to wall humans.
That's Eric Jou.
Photos: News.Cn, Longhoo, WyNews, BackChina, Xinhuanet, People.com.cn, Tiexue Eric Jou contributed to this article. The Eric Jou photo is courtesy of Frank Yu.
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