During the “Golden Week” holiday, over 105 tons of trash were cleared from Mount Lao, more than 50 tons from Zhongshan Park, several tons from the No. 6 Bathing Beach, and nearly ten tons from the Badaguan Scenic Area... On October 8, reporters mapped out the “trash hotspots” across various tourist sites during the holiday. With 300,000 people flocking to Zhongshan Park, the aftermath wasn’t just massive littering but also extensive damage to lawns, with up to 10,000 square meters of turf replaced within a year. On the steep stone steps of the rugged Mount Lao’s Giant Peak scenic area, scattered not only were carelessly discarded trash items but also the sweat of over a hundred “porters,” who hiked up and down the mountain peak daily throughout the holiday, climbing as many as 110,000 steps. Using nothing but a carrying pole, they transported down ten tons of trash...
A. Mount Lao Porters Haul Trash, Climbing 110,000 Steps in 7 Days
Over 80 Large Trash Bags Cleared Daily
Wang Yejin, 51, is a sanitation worker at the Giant Peak scenic area of Mount Lao. During the National Day golden week, the Mount Lao Scenic Area received 195,000 visitors, with October 3 setting a record for single-day entries at 49,722. The influx posed a challenge for Wang and his colleagues, as the Giant Peak area consists entirely of up-and-down stairways, with all trash bins situated along narrow mountain paths inaccessible to vehicles—requiring workers to manually carry piles of trash down the mountain every day.
At dawn, around 6 a.m., before visitors arrived, sanitation worker Wang Yejin had already begun his thorough sweep along the vehicle-access road in the Giant Peak touring area, aiming to clear all trash before the crowds showed up. After 10 a.m., as visitor numbers surged, he shifted his focus to the pedestrian walking paths. Under the scorching sun, he walked swiftly, head down, constantly bending to pick up litter. With the area overwhelmed by tourists, trash bins quickly filled up, and he and his partner had to haul the waste down the mountain using carrying poles—making at least four or five round trips a day, covering over 16,000 steps, totaling more than 110,000 steps over seven days. He cleared over 80 large trash bags daily, with the Giant Peak scenic area accumulating 10 tons of trash in that week alone. At night, Wang lay in bed in constant pain from soreness, but the next morning, he had to get up early and repeat the grueling routine.
Legs Too Sore to Lift Onto Bed at Night
The stretch of mountain path that Wang Yejin and Liu Yuqin were assigned to cover was 3.7 kilometers long. A section of the uphill path leading to Lingqi Peak was a mandatory route for every visitor, so for such high-traffic areas, the two had to walk along the path picking up trash nonstop—once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
“The most exhausting part is the path from the Giant Peak Cable Car restroom to the viewing platform. It’s all steps, with only the viewing platform being a flat area. Many visitors rest and eat there, so foot traffic is heavy, and trash accumulates quickly on both sides. We don’t have any local farm eateries up here at Giant Peak, so visitors bring their own food up the mountain. You name it—we see all kinds of trash: plastic bags, instant noodle cups, food wrappers, fruit pits.” explained Liu Yuqin. “We usually carry four bags of trash down at a time. When there are too many fruit pits, it gets too heavy to lift. While hauling trash downhill, we also pick up litter along the way. We worked seven days straight like this. At our most exhausted, when we got home at night, our legs were too sore to even lift onto the bed, completely numb, and our soles felt swollen and painful.”
There are 153 other sanitation workers like Wang Yejin and Liu Yuqin in the Mount Lao Scenic Area. They are responsible for the daily cleaning of the area’s 161-square-kilometer touring zone. They hold the frontline daily, working over ten hours a shift.
Lunch Is Just Cold Steamed Buns and Salted Duck Eggs
Earlier this year, Wang Yejin was diagnosed with bone spurs in his right leg. “It doesn’t hurt when I’m moving around, but once I stop, the pain is unbearable,” his partner Liu Yuqin told reporters. “I often see him massaging his right leg whenever he gets a break. He frequently complains of pain, and sometimes his leg even swells up.”
Though age isn’t much of an issue for 51-year-old Wang Yejin, the leg pain has been a constant burden. To support his entire family, he can’t afford to take time off and must push through. “His family is in a tough situation. His spouse has long been in poor health and unable to work, and their child is still young and needs care. He’s the sole breadwinner in the household. Without this job, there’d be no income,” a coworker shared.
Chen Ruiying from the Sanitation Department of the Giant Peak Touring Area explained that the sanitation workers at Giant Peak are hired from nearby villages. “These workers are around 50 years old,” said Director Chen. Their lunches are also makeshift—sometimes during mountain patrols, they just bring cold steamed buns and salted duck eggs.
Most Dread Being Scolded by Tourists
Hard work and tough living conditions are something these sanitation workers can endure, but what they fear most is encountering disrespectful tourists. Many visitors to Giant Peak bring their own meals and fruit up the mountain. Some inconsiderate tourists, despite trash bins being nearby, still toss melon seeds and shells on the ground. On one occasion, Liu Yuqin couldn’t stand it and tried to stop them. “They just rolled their eyes and said, ‘If we don’t throw it, you’d be out of a job.’ I felt so wronged I almost cried. Some tourists have zero respect for us,” Liu Yuqin said. “Most litterbugs do listen when advised. These days, there are more and more considerate visitors.”
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After the exhausting National Day holiday, these sanitation workers can take a brief rest. But as the weather gets colder, it presents yet another challenge for them.
“After mid-autumn, the weather at higher altitudes in the mountains becomes highly unpredictable. It may look clear down below, but there could be light rain up top. Sanitation workers have to climb tens of thousands of steps from the bottom to the top, making multiple round trips a day — just the walking makes them sweat. Then, climbing up in sweat, getting drenched by light rain, and blasted by mountain winds often leads to colds. Because their workload is so heavy, they even find it tiring to carry water bottles up the mountain, so they rarely hydrate while working,” explained Section Chief Chen.
B Tourist attractions are generally hotspots for litter
Zhongshan Park generates over 50 tons of trash in 7 days
“Normally, most visitors to Zhongshan Park are local residents of Qingdao, and during the National Day holiday, most are from nearby counties and cities. Visitors usually have lunch right here in the park,” a staff member from Zhongshan Park Management Office told reporters on October 8.
“During the seven-day National Day holiday, the first three days saw a huge influx of tourists, with October 3 alone attracting 70,000 visitors. The latter three days had slightly fewer people, but the total still marked a recent peak, reaching nearly 300,000,” the staff member said. “We didn’t take any days off during the holiday. Originally 30 sanitation workers, plus landscaping maintenance and logistics staff, a total of over 50 people, worked around the clock to maintain cleanliness in the scenic area.”
Reporters learned that trash in Zhongshan Park tends to accumulate along both sides of Cherry Blossom Avenue and on the lawns. “Many people don’t pay attention and just toss cigarette butts onto the pathways. We have dedicated personnel patrolling the main roads back and forth to pick up cigarette butts. In one trip, they can collect quite a few in their bags — one person can pick up hundreds of cigarette butts in a single day,” the staff member explained. “During the National Day holiday, with the surge in visitors, many trash bins would fill up within one or two hours. The garbage trucks come once a day, each carrying about 8 tons. All in all, Zhongshan Park generated over 50 tons of trash in those seven days. The trash mainly consists of plastic bottles, plastic bags, packaging materials, and food scraps.”
Reporters found that cigarette butts aren’t the only headache for Zhongshan Park. “There are people climbing trees, walking dogs, breaking branches, and even those who eat on the lawn and leave without cleaning up. Not only does this leave behind a lot of trash to clean, but it also causes significant damage to the lawns,” the staff member said. Zhongshan Park has to replace 10,000 to 12,000 square meters of lawn each year. “Many areas need to be resodded multiple times a year, such as along Cherry Blossom Avenue.”
Badaguan’s 300-meter beach generates one ton of trash per day
“The situation this year is a bit special. Compared to previous years, we’ve seen a significant increase in visitors here,” a person in charge at Badaguan (Sixth Bathing Beach) told reporters. Due to many visitors coming to see Zhanqiao (the Zhanqiao Pier), but being unable to get close as it’s under repair, many have turned to the nearby Sixth Bathing Beach instead.
“We’ve set up 16 pairs of trash bins on the platform and 13 trash bins on the beach,” the person in charge explained. On this not particularly large bathing beach, a total of 30,000 visitors were recorded over seven days. “Currently, including temporary workers, we have ten people handling sanitation work. Aside from lunch breaks, they’re out on the beach all day long, cleaning up trash back and forth.”
Reporters observed that the beach cleanup area at the Sixth Bathing Beach stretches around 300 meters. Though it might seem short, sanitation workers take nearly half an hour to clean from one end to the other. “Some people on the beach aren’t very cooperative — they litter everywhere. And when sanitation workers try to stop them, their attitudes turn sour, often leading to arguments.”
Besides the difficulty of cleaning up trash on the beaches, sanitation work in the Badaguan scenic area is no easy task. By noon, Badaguan is bustling with people. "Many people eat on the lawns, and just the trash we clean up from the grass adds up to seven or eight tons over seven days — about a ton per day," explained a staff member from the Badaguan Subdistrict Office. "What frustrates us the most are those taking wedding photos. A single van brings so many people, and they use bags of tissues to wipe off makeup and then just throw them on the ground. As soon as they toss them, we sanitation workers have to follow behind and pick them up."
C The Unspoken “Words from the Heart” of Sanitation Workers
On one side are tourists carelessly tossing trash along the way, and on the other are sanitation workers sweating under the scorching sun as they climb to the mountaintops. Trash is thrown in the front, picked up in the back. Those who throw do so without a second thought, while those who pick up are physically and mentally exhausted. This scene isn’t limited to the peak of Mount Lao; in many scenic spots across Qingdao, it has become an exasperating and laughable predicament.
When faced with advice from sanitation workers, some tourists respond in truly surprising ways. They believe that the job of sanitation workers is simply to clean and pick up trash, and they feel no shame for casually littering themselves. "Everyone else is doing it, so what’s the harm in me throwing just a little?" or "Everyone lets their kids climb trees, so why can’t I let mine have some fun?" One person imitates another, and before long, the entire scenic area turns into a “trash dump,” and the trees become “climbing posts.”
“Mind your own business.” This has become the somewhat helpless response received by well-meaning people who try to intervene. “There’s no way to deal with people like this.” Other well-intentioned tourists can’t do anything about it, and staff members, lacking enforcement power, can’t either. Is there really no way to deal with such individuals? The personal quality of tourists is one issue, but the management of the scenic area also becomes a matter worthy of consideration. It’s worth asking: do most tourists voluntarily dispose of their trash in bins?
If the majority of tourists consciously follow the rules, it suggests that the scenic area’s management is not the main problem. But if most visitors choose to litter indiscriminately, sit on the lawns without a care for their condition, then the management of the scenic area certainly bears undeniable responsibility. Lax management can lead to an increasing amount of uncivilized behavior among visitors, and permissive oversight directly results in the “heavy burden” shouldered by sanitation workers.
Sanitation workers earn meager wages, eat poorly, and their voices carry very little weight — they are often met with scorn and ridicule from tourists. Yet, they yearn for understanding and respect. They want to share those “words from the heart” that are so hard to say out loud.
Hikers Take Action: Bring Environmental Love to Mount Lao
Seven days, 110,000 steps, hundreds of “porters,” ten tons of trash — these heavy figures weigh like a boulder on the heart of Mount Lao, putting immense “pressure” on the sanitation efforts throughout the scenic area. For the hundreds of “porters,” ten tons of trash means hauling it down the mountain basket by basket, sometimes carrying seven or eight garbage bags at a time — a true heavy load. But for the tens of thousands of visitors who climb Mount Lao, those ten tons could easily be carried down the mountain by each person bringing just a small bag. In light of this, the Information Daily has launched an initiative, hoping that hiking enthusiasts and citizens will lend a hand to Mount Lao’s “porters.” A little help from everyone can lighten their load. If all join in passing on the love for environmental protection on Mount Lao, then the “porters” won’t have to climb up and down so arduously.
“We sincerely hope that visitors coming up the mountain can be more conscious and avoid littering carelessly. The best scenario is for everyone to take the trash they bring up the mountain back down with them for proper disposal, or to put it in the trash bins. That would make things much easier to handle,” the staff member appealed.