Tourist sites overwhelmed as toll-free roads increase crowds.The extended national holidays and a decision to waive highway tolls have brought many tourist attractions to a virtual standstill since the beginning of the eight-day vacation.

Authorities have felt the pinch of the projected 13 percent increase in travelers on the roads, in part boosted by toll-free highways during major festivals, effective since Sunday.Holiday income at tourist attractions reached 310 million yuan ($49.3 million), skyrocketing by 33 percent year-on-year.

But the huge crowds, heavy traffic and exorbitant prices in tourist areas have taken some of the luster out of Golden Week.Chen Li, deputy director of the Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Department, said on his micro blog that more than 300 policemen and government officials climbed up the mountain to help trapped visitors.

The waiving of highway tolls compounded problems. Byspurring unprecedented road traffic, toll-free highways left hundreds of thousands of drivers stuck in traffic during.Twenty-four major highways in 16 provinces were effectively transformed into enormous parking lots as 86 million people took to the roads.Thousands of pictures were posted on micro blogs showing frustrated drivers walking their dogs, playing tennis or just napping in the vehicles.

To solve the problems, the government should consider adjusting the long-holiday framework that puts more than 1.3 billion people on vacation for a week at exactly the same time, experts say.

滬江英語(yǔ)快訊：“雙節(jié)”雖然已經(jīng)過(guò)去，但黃金周出游的擁堵依然揮之不去。對(duì)于黃金周如此擁擠的原因，有網(wǎng)友認(rèn)為是缺少了“五一”黃金周的分流。2008年“五一”長(zhǎng)假被清明、端午和中秋等3天“小長(zhǎng)假”取代后，“十一”集聚了居民出游潛能，再加上高速路公路免收費(fèi)，以致造成各景點(diǎn)人潮洶涌，車(chē)輛綿延不絕，游客們本想利用長(zhǎng)假好好放松，卻絲毫沒(méi)有體會(huì)到游山玩水之樂(lè)。北京故宮、江西廬山、陜西華山、福建鼓浪嶼等熱門(mén)景區(qū)都出現(xiàn)了游客數(shù)量較多、滯留在路上的情況。不少游客打趣說(shuō)，本來(lái)想在西湖拍張獨(dú)照留念，但拍來(lái)拍去都是集體照。