Destinations knownChinese tourists are travelling domestically and already getting blacklisted

For much of the world, watching mainland China emerge from under the physical and financial pressures exerted by the coronavirus outbreak is like being given a glimpse into the future. When, on January 23, the city of Wuhan, with its population of 11 million – where reports of the first sufferers originated – was placed in lockdown, the World Health Organisation called the move “unprecedented”. Similar restrictions have since been imposed, from Australia to the United States.

By mid-February, analysis conducted by The New York Times showed that 760 million people in China, or more than half of the country’s population, were subjected to some degree of lockdown. Two months on and the restrictions on movement in the mainland have largely been lifted. Wuhan residents were among the last to be let out, emerging from 76 days of isolation on April 8. And, in the days that followed, tens of thousands of them promptly did as fellow countrymen had already done by exiting the city that had held them captive and heading elsewhere in China for work, to see family or simply to witness the world again.

Quicker than you could say “the new normal looks a lot like the old normal”, the internet was flooded with images of tourist sites – from Huangshan mountain park, in Anhui province, to Shanghai’s waterfront promenade, the Bund – inundated with visitors. For some, the excitement of being out in the open again was apparently too much to take.

On April 7, CNN Travel reported that the Badaling section of the Great Wall, located about 80km northwest of Beijing, had been vandalised on March 24, the same day it had reopened to sightseers. The perpetrator was filmed defacing the historic site with a key and, unsurprisingly, the online world was outraged. “Great Wall vandalised the first day it reopened” soon became a trending topic on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter.

Local officials responded to the incident by announcing new disciplinary measures, including the creation of a “blacklist” to which miscreants’ names will be added. The list will be broadcast in the hopes that public shaming will work where individual moral compasses fail. Blacklisted tourists will also reportedly face restrictions should they ever try and return to the Great Wall to see whether their name remains carved into its structure, although it’s not clear what those restrictions might be. There is also talk of banning offenders from entering other Yanqing county attractions, such as the Guyaju Caves and Longqing Gorge.

With millions across the globe having been reduced to staring at the same few walls for weeks on end, the enthusiasm with which Chinese citizens have embraced their ability to travel again is entirely understandable. As is the desire to head for the hills in search of fresh air and unobstructed outlooks. But, even ignoring the sheer numbers of day trippers who descended on the tourist attraction of their choice – it is surely down to the destination to limit how many people it receives – it should go without saying that the attraction should be respected, especially after having been treated to an unexpected break from human intrusion.