Growing pains

During the summer, about 160,000 tourists from lower neighboring areas swarmed into the mountain town of Moudao to enjoy its temperate climate and avoid the heat.

The population swelled, exceeding those in a number of county-level cities, vehicles jammed the roads and tourists packed into the market.

While many local businesspeople found that trade had tripled or even quadrupled, the town's public servants were forced to work hard to manage the new "city".