Great Wall of China (Badaling)

Badaling, the Great Wall’s most accessible section, turns an ancient marvel into a human assembly line: 10 million visitors annually ascend a 1.5 km stretch that averages only 4 meters wide, forcing walkers to match the crowd’s shuffle rather than choose their own pace. During October’s Golden Week, wait times at the cable car exceed 2 hours, which is 150% longer than the average wait at #3 Machu Picchu’s entry gate. Lighter by 30% in visitor throughput than #2 Angkor Wat’s causeway, Badaling still delivers a 12-minute average bottleneck when lines of 2,000 people compress into stairways rated for just 500.