The Golden Week national holiday in China certainly lived up to its name for tourism providers and businesses along the most popular stretches of the Great Wall of China.
An estimated 18 million people visited the Great Wall during the holiday period which includes a mind boggling 8 million visitors in a single day on Saturday, October 4.
This is the highest number to visit on a single day for five years and to put it in context, is almost as large as the entire population of New York City.
The crowded throng of people itself became a tourist attraction in its own right, with sightseers taking photos of the never-ending flood of visitors.
Less than 10% of the Great Wall’s 13,177-mile length is visited regularly by tourists as much of it is in poor condition and in some sections, only the foundations remain.
The National Tourism Administration said about 480 million people took to the roads, rail and air during Golden Week with an increasing number venturing overseas.
Despite pro-democracy protests, tourism from the mainland to Hong Kong was up over 5% to almost one million visits, while Macao and Taiwan also reported double-digit increases this year.
