On 1 January 2023, many tourists reported that they were trapped on the mountain for an hour when they were visiting Laojun Mountain in Luoyang, Henan.
On 2 January, the staff of Laojunshan Scenic Area replied that there was a “brief” congestion on the mountain due to snowfall that day, resulting in slippery paths which delayed descent.
Multiple social media postings showed videos of many tourists stuck on a platform on the top of a mountain. Some tourists had a thin layer of snow on their hats, some tourists were holding umbrellas, and many tourists kept shouting “refund”.
Someone made a video with advice for others thinking of visiting the site: “If you can’t go to the Golden Summit, you will get your refund. If you haven’t come, don’t come. I can’t go up, and I can’t go down now.”
Another tourist also said that he was also stuck for more than an hour, unable to go up to the Golden Summit and not allowed to go down the mountain either (for safety reasons). The scene was very chaotic, and he didn’t go down until after 8 o’clock in the evening.
The management pointed out that when the situation arose, the company immediately organized personnel to maintain order and the tourists stuck on the mountains were evacuated within 40 minutes. Then the company also claimed that they shoveled snow and de-iced the area overnight and “strengthened the organization and management of the area”. They also claimed that they had assigned additional staff to maintain order and “strengthened crowd control”, cable car passenger flow monitoring and the diversion of traffic. All cable car tickets, unused for whatever reason, will also be refunded.
From the flood of complaints from tourists, these things were probably not done. Interestingly, someone also shared on Twitter of tourists trapped on the mountain scolding Wang Qishan. This was of course not reported in the mainstream media.
