National scenic spots are unusually calm as 'golden week' tourists flock abroad

Tourists expecting traffic jams and long queues at popular scenic attractions across the nation have been spared a repeat of last year's chaotic scenes over the past two days.

Jiuzhaigou , a stunning national park in the mountains of northern Sichuan , is a riot of autumn colour at this time of year, but it saw fewer than 9,000 visitors on the first day of "golden week", the week-long National Day holiday.

In stark contrast, the park was the scene of anger and chaos last October 2 when thousands of tourists were stranded for hours after shuttle buses failed to show up on schedule. Nearly 50,000 tourists visited the park that day, according to the provincial tourism bureau.

Hotels near the park also saw far fewer guests, the local government said on the park's official website. As of yesterday, only 40 per cent of rooms had been booked for the first five days of the holiday. On Sunday and Monday, occupancy rates could be as low as 13 per cent.

"[Jiuzhaigou] didn't feel like the usual battleground at all," a manager from Kanghui International Travel Services told the Chengdu Business Herald. "It's been the smallest crowd of the past few years. People are now so wary of the crowds that they would rather avoid travelling on the mainland during golden week."

Scenic Huangshan in Anhui province had 11,000 visitors on Wednesday, about the same as a typical weekend. Visitor numbers were down 30 per cent year on year at Mt Wutai in Shanxi and 46 per cent at Mt Emei in Sichuan, both popular Buddhist sites, mainland media re ported.