Ancient architecture with a Sun Mao structure at the Palace Museum in Beijing Photo: VCG

The misuse of accessibility services in popular tourist destinations is receiving increasing public and media attention. This behavior, whereby individuals who do not need them take advantage of these services, not only abuses resources intended for vulnerable groups, but also undermines fairness and order in public spaces. This draws attention to the need for visitors to act responsibly and for management teams to implement stricter rules to improve the visitor experience.

Recently, some visitors have started renting wheelchairs to simplify security checks and save time by using accessibility lanes or priority channels in popular tourist spots such as the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Shanghai Disney Resort, although they do not need these services. This sparked public debate and attracted media attention.

“Renting a wheelchair not only saves your legs, but also gives you the opportunity to avoid queues. It’s definitely worth it!” On social media, certain posts, often accompanied by photos of individuals appearing to have no mobility problems, promote such exploitative practices.

While some commenters have expressed genuine interest in wheelchair rentals for elderly family members who have difficulty getting around busy tourist locations, others have sharply criticized the behavior of those who abuse the services accessibility. They called these actions selfish and unfair, emphasizing that these facilities are intended to help those with real needs.

This is not the first time wheelchairs have been associated with avoiding queues at popular tourist spots. In August, reports emerged of renting a wheelchair to avoid queues at the Emperor Qinshihuang Mausoleum Museum in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi province , sparked lively discussions. According to Huashang Daily, a netizen shared a video showing that for 260 yuan ($35.62), visitors could rent a wheelchair, avoid queues, and even get help from staff to push the wheelchair. .

In response, Shanghai Disney Resort has updated its wheelchair policy, effective December 10, to better accommodate guests with limited mobility while improving park safety.

At popular attractions, long queues are sometimes unavoidable, especially during summer and winter holidays or during special exhibitions. However, queuing in an orderly manner should be a fundamental part of civilized visitor behavior. Accessibility routes are intended to provide the necessary comfort to people with disabilities, the elderly and other vulnerable groups in society. When visitors who don’t need it pretend to have mobility issues to operate these lanes, they save time and effort for themselves but essentially just bypass the lines. This violates fundamental rules and ethics.

To address this issue, management should consider refining audit procedures to prevent misuse of accessibility routes. For example, in addition to serving visibly elderly visitors, staff could require middle-aged individuals without obvious mobility issues to provide additional documentation, such as a disability certificate, to ensure proper use of these lanes . At the same time, the process must include human communication to avoid causing inconvenience to those who actually need help.

At the same time, tourism management teams can also consider efforts to improve the tourist experience during queues.

For example, Harbin, the capital of China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province, has become one of the top tourist destinations in winter. Some tourist sites offer heating pads to keep visitors warm while waiting in line.

Hengdian World Studios, a major film production base in east China’s Zhejiang province, has improved visitor experience during peak seasons by implementing several measures such as expanded ticketing channels with additional lanes and expanded waiting areas, and assigning staff to guide the flow of visitors. Dedicated entry corridors have been established for different groups, such as tourist groups, with special corridors set up for events when necessary, the base told the Global Times.

“We also organized song and dance performances in the waiting areas to entertain visitors,” the base said.

The author is a journalist at the Global Times. [email protected]