Chinese climbers stuck on cliff for more than an hour due to overcrowding

(CNN) — Mount Everest isn’t the only peak in the world experiencing overcrowding.

Earlier this week, groups of travelers climbing Yandang Mountain in eastern China were stuck partway up a cliff, clinging to a rope along a fixed climbing route, for more than an hour.

Images of the climbers hanging off the cliffside as they waited for others to progress along the via ferrata – metal rungs secured to the mountain – went viral on Chinese social media.

“This is frightening! Someone like me afraid of heights might just wet myself up there!” wrote one Chinese online commenter.

“I won’t even go even if I’m offered cash to do this,” another said.

Another commenter asked what would happen if one of the climbers fell and needed rescuing, but all were shown wearing helmets, harnesses, and safety gear.

Wenzhou Dingcheng Sports Development Co., Ltd, which manages the via ferrata, said it had underestimated the number of people interested in climbing the mountain.

“Due to our misjudgment of how many customers would come, the lack of effective traffic controls such as a ticket reservation system, and shortcomings in onsite management, customers were blocked and trapped on the climbing route,” the company said in a statement.

The company added that it was temporarily halting ticket sales while it handled the situation internally, and would be rolling out a traffic-control system for visitors in the future.

Yandang Mountain is about 410 kilometers (255 miles) south of Shanghai, in Zhejiang province, and is 1,150 meters (3,773 feet) high.

The first week of May is the Labor Day holiday in China, which contributed to the large numbers of tourists in the area.

A popular site for holidaymakers in China, Yandang Mountain was submitted for UNESCO World Heritage site designation in 2001 and remains on the tentative list.

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