Getting stuck in traffic for hours on our way to work and back home has become the everyday reality of our lives. But imagine getting stuck in a traffic jam, not on a road, but in the middle of a desert, that too when you are riding a camel! No, we are not talking about life on the ancient Silk Route or some desert country in the Middle East.
The city of Dunhuang in Gansu province of Northwestern China, could very well be the only place on earth that has traffic jams due to camels. The Mingsha Mountain in Dunhuang, also known as the Singing Sand Dunes, is a highly sought-after tourist destination in China and is visited by millions of tourists from across the world every year.?
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The best way to enjoy Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring is to take a camel ride, but due to the high demand by tourists, it is not uncommon to see long lines of camels crossing the desert and collisions between the animals.?
A few years ago, China came up with an ingenious solution for this - a traffic light for camels. Touted as the world's first traffic light for camels, the system was launched in 2021.
The red, yellow, and green lights, that have camel signs on them, perform the job of regular traffic lights - red means the camels have to stop and green signals them to march ahead.?
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Dunhuang City sits in an oasis in the Gansu-Xinjiang desert region and it was developed as a tourist attraction in the 1990s. According to local authorities, more than 3.7 million tourists visited Dunhuang in 2023, with 42 percent opting for camel rides.?
The camel rides are operated by local villagers who charge 100 yuan (Rs 1,100) per tourist for the trip. There are over 2,000 camels in Dunhuang ferrying tourists.
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