Chongqing's popular scenic spot limits number of daily visitors

Popular tourist attraction Hongya Cave in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has launched an online booking service this month to limit daily visitors.

Tourists can book free tickets three months in advance through its WeChat account. It is a move to prevent excessive numbers of tourists during holiday periods.

According to the local tourism department, the daily tourism carrying capacity of the cave is about 122,000 people.

If the number of tourists reaches capacity, the online reservation service will stop.

Hongya Cave is located in the riverside area of the Yangtze River and the Jialing River. It's not a cave, but an area of well-preserved stilt houses. The "caves" are a fun place to try local food, buy souvenirs, and enjoy the city's tourism scene. At night, the brightly-lit complex is fairly spectacular, always drawing large crowds.

The site rose to fame last year through short online videos and livestreaming. It has been recommended by major Chinese online travel service providers as one of the country's most popular tourist destinations.

Last year's May Day holiday saw almost 100,000 tourists flock to Hongya Cave in two days. More than 400 police officers were deployed to maintain order.

Apart from the online booking system, the scenic spot also installed advanced cameras and other equipment to control visitor numbers.