China's tourist sites see travel peaks

BEIJING -- Major tourist destinations around China are witnessing travel peaks amid the eight-day Mid-autumn Festival and National Day holidays that run through until Sunday.

In Beijing, the Palace Museum, or the Forbidden City, attracted 182,000 tourists Tuesday, the biggest number on a single day, as millions of visitors arrived in the national capital.

Earlier, from Sunday noon to midday Monday, garbage collected at Tian'anmen Square in the heart of the city amounted to 7.9 metric tons, a quarter more than that in the same period last year.

In the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, its top five major tourist sites attracted more than 200,000 visitors Tuesday.

On Wednesday, thousands of vehicles jammed two 20-km mountain roads winding to and out of the Lushan Mountain scenic area in the eastern province of Jiangxi.

The area has about 3,000-car parking space, unable to cope with at least 8,000 inbound cars, said Jiang Renfa, head of the Lushan Mountain public security bureau.

The Lushan Mountain tourism administration temporarily stopped selling entrance tickets to prevent the traffic from growing on Tuesday afternoon. Similar measures could be taken during the rest of the holidays, a police officer said.

Fearing that tourist sites might become too crowded, many people are staying at home, going shopping or making brief suburban excursions.

A resident surnamed Wang in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi, canceled long-distance travel plans after knowing heavy traffic on many highways during the first two days of the holidays.

Instead, Wang, his wife and son went fishing at a reservoir in the suburbs before having a picnic.

A 28-year-old woman surnamed Hu, a bank clerk, said she planned to stay at home, clean house, read books and drink tea.

Many, particularly schoolchildren, chose to go to bookstores for finding new favorites.

"I can learn more than that being taught in classrooms," said Yang Shubin, a junior high school student.