During this National Day public holiday, scenic spots all over China are crowded with tourists.
One spot that is especially popular this year is Dunhuang in Gansu. Six kilometers south of the city you find the “Singing Sand Mountains & Crescent Moon Spring” (鸣沙山月牙泉). The area features 40 kilometers of mountains, expansive sand dunes, and a crescent-shaped lake. These landscapes are known as some of the great landscapes of Dunhuang.
Over the past few days, the huge crowds visiting the area have attracted attention on Chinese social media, where people joke about the ‘camel jams’ (堵骆驼) happening due to so many tourists doing camel rides in the scenic area, causing enormous lines of camels throughout the desert (see video).

Massive lines of camels in the desert near Dunhuang. (What’s on Weibo screenshot, video by Ctrip Adviser 携程旅行顾问.
To regulate the traffic at camel intersections, the area has even set up special camel traffic lights, supposedly to reduce congestion and improve the camel flow. The camel traffic lights (骆驼红绿灯) were set up earlier this year at two intersections between pedestrian walkways and camel paths, becoming a popular new tourist spot for taking photos.
The scenic area is seeing a record-breaking number of visitors this year, with the total number of visitors received up to October 3 reaching nearly 3.5 million, breaking the previous annual visitor record of approximately 2.5 million visitors in 2019.
The crowds usually arrive during summer, which is when you will seen those scenes of seemingly endless caravans of camels marching across the desert. But this year’s May holiday also saw huge crowds flocking to Dunhuang and the Singing Sand Mountains area.
Besides riding camels, people also come to the scenic area to take photos, admire the surroundings, see the sunrise or sunset, and sometimes to enjoy special performances or shows arranged by the local tourism board to entertain visitors.

Drone show in Dunhuang, via a Dunhuang official account on Weibo.
This National Day holiday, there are also nightly aerial drone light shows from 20:30 to 20:50. Set against the night sky, these shows are themed around the Silk Road, as a tribute to Dunhuang’s historical role as an important strategic and military point within the Silk Road network.
In light of this history, Chinese netizens find the enormous camel tourist troops especially funny. “If I didn’t know [it was a scenic spot], I’d think it was a military campaign involving city sieges,” one Weibo commenter said, with other social media users comparing it to “an expedition mission.”
Some Chinese tourists riding camels in the area during the busy scenes complained on social media: “I came here for a vacation, but those who don’t know better might think I’m on a mission to conquer the Xiongnu!”
The ‘camel jam’ phenomenon is not especially new. In pre-Covid years, there were also reports about massive traffic jams of hundreds of camels stuck in long queues.
Besides the crowds in Dunhuang, people also posted videos and images of other places. From Nanchang (amazing crowds) to Xi’an, from Shanghai to Wuhan.
This National Day holiday, also Mid-Autumn Festival, started September 29, and will last until to October 6. This extended vacation period gives people a total of eight days to relax and explore.
Domestic travel is especially booming this holiday. According to online platforms like Meituan and Dianping, tourism consumption orders on the platforms for the public holiday doubled compared with 2019.

Crowds in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing.
With so many places being crowded (see video), the hashtag “Which place is empty during this holiday?” (#假期到底哪个城市空了#) became popular on Weibo, especially among those looking for a quiet spot this week.
“It’s empty in my university,” some said: “Watching all these crowds, I’d just rather stay at home.”
By Manya Koetse
with contributions by Miranda Barnes
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