Chinese tourists’ quest for the perfect picture leads to brawl on mountain top
Group filmed trading blows on top of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain after jostling for position at a beauty spot
Competition for the perfect holiday snap led to a high-altitude brawl over the ideal viewpoint at a mountain in southwest China last week.
Several men clad in bright red jackets exchanged spirited blows with another man on Thursday afternoon on Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in what the news platform ifeng.com reported was a dispute over a picturesque spot.
In a video recorded by a witness and shared online, the men appear unfazed by the thinning oxygen at their elevation of 4,680 metres (15,355ft), repeatedly punching and kicking each other against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains as a large tour group looked on.
Police arrived on the scene and quelled the brawlers, taking them down to the station for questioning.
The two groups of tourists were from Kunming in Yunnan province and Gutian in Fujian province, according to a police statement.
“After police investigations and intervention, both sides realised their faults,” according to the statement released by the Lijiang Yulong police on Thursday night.
While violence may be uncommon, overcrowding of scenic areas has been a significant problem at the mountain, which is located just outside Lijiang, a scenic tourist hot spot.
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Earlier this year, local authorities moved to limit the environmental burden of tourism on the mountain’s glacial park area by reducing the daily number of visitors from 28,000 to 10,000.
The changes were also related to concerns about whether the cable cars which shuttle visitors to the peak could cope with the number of tourists.
It is unclear whether any of the men involved in last week’s altercation got the photo that they wanted.
