Having just returned from China, I can sympathise with the problems of over-crowding at popular tourist sites.
One of the very scenic places I visited in China, with my Chinese partner, was the Yellow Mountains in Huangshan. These are magnificent mountains that feature in many ancient Chinese paintings and scrolls.
The very friendly owner of the hotel we were staying at, close to the mountains, recommended that we should avoid going up the mountains on the Sunday because the weekends are rather crowded. So we took a bus ride on the Monday, to the entrance of the cable car, for people who who don't have the time or energy to walk up, although that is an option which I might have taken if I were travelling alone.
What really amazed me was the extent of the queues, on the Monday. If it was that bad on a Monday, what on earth would it have been like on a Saturday or Sunday.
Following is a shot I took of the queues. However, to be fair to the Chinese, an official did observe our plight and directed us to a shortcut route to escape the crowds, possibly only available for foreign tourists. That saved us a lot of time.
On the way back down, we made the error of assuming that our ticket was a return ticket, because it was quite expensive by Chinese standards, over A$40 per person.
After half an hour of slowly moving down several flights of stairs, crushed within a mass of Chinese tourists, we finally arrived at the entrance to the descending cable cars, only to be told by the ticket inspector that our ticket was not valid. It was a one-way ticket, and we should go back up the stairs to buy another ticket.
We did our best to explain that walking back up several flights of stairs, against a mass of crowds moving in the opposite direction, would be too difficult. The inspector called someone who spoke better English and who understood the problem. So we paid her the money for the tickets and sat down for 10 or 15 minutes whilst she took some other back-route to the ticket office. Problem solved.
The Chinese can be very helpful. Some of the accommodation we stayed at was severely lacking in facilities. One room didn't even have a fridge, yet the proprietors (or proprietresses) were really helpful and friendly, so that more than compensated for any lack of room facilities.