Tourists stuck for more than an hour above the void on the side of a mountain due to overtourism in China

Tourists stranded on a climbing trail in eastern China over the Labor Day long weekend. Twitter screenshot

This Saturday, May 4, 2024, tourists found themselves stranded above the void for more than an hour while doing via ferrata on the side of Mount Yandang in China.

This Saturday, May 4, 2024, tourists found themselves stuck above the void for more than an hour while doing via ferrata on the side of Mount Yandang in China. The cause: attendance underestimated by the organizing company, explains the American mediaCNN.

More than an hour in the void

Images posted on social networks show several dozen people, wearing a helmet, a harness and their carabiners hanging on a metal rope fixed to the mountain, forced to wait, several meters high the time for other climbers to advance on the route.

🚨 #Thrilling moments caught on video! On May 4, visitors at Yandang Mountain in Wenzhou, #Zhejiang, experienced unexpected delays while #rockclimbing. Stranded mid-cliff for an hour, climbers were suspended in a precarious position between a steep cliff ahead and a deep abyss… pic.twitter.com/SmTiwpqgOC

— Shanghai Daily (@shanghaidaily) May 5, 2024

In a press release, the organizing company explained that it had underestimated the number of participants in the activity. "Due to our poor assessment of the number of customers, lack of effective traffic controls such as a ticket reservation system and shortcomings in on-site management, customers were blocked and trapped on the escalation route, admitted the company Wenzhou Dingcheng Sports Development Co.

It also announced that it was temporarily suspending ticket sales while it put in place a more efficient system to manage the influx of tourists.