Ghosts meet their match as attraction too popular

• Source: Global Times
• [09:39 June 04 2010]
• Comments

Security guards stand at the gate of Ghostdom on Kangding Road Thursday afternoon in a bid to prevent the chaotic scenes of its opening day. Operators have limited the number of customers to 200 per day. Photo: Cai Xianmin

By Zhang Cao

A haunted house attraction reopened its doors Thursday following a chaotic first day of operation on Tuesday that resulted in damage to equipment, which forced the organizers to close for repairs.

The Ghostdom haunted house in Jing'an district has limited the number of customers it will admit to 200 per day and beefed up security.

"Too many visitors came, which resulted in disorder, so we have had to limit the number of people we let in," a coordinator surnamed Du from Shanghai Wo'er Art Company, the operator of the attraction, told the Global Times Thursday.

Du denied accounts from online forums that claimed some visitors became so scared that they fainted. He confirmed other reports that some of the attraction's equipment had been damaged by visitors.

"In the evening after the last group of visitors had left, I found lots of our equipment had been broken," said Du. "It was such a mess. I don't know if it was because visitors were too scared or just badly behaved."

A notice was posted at the door of the attraction on Wednesday, stating that it was temporarily closed for repairs.

The number of visitors on Tuesday reached over 700, around three times more than the operator expected. The queue stretched for 50 meters outside the five-floor building.

"Many visitors queued for over five hours. Some jumped the queue, so others got angry and even began battering the door," said Liu Fangqi, director of marketing for Shanghai Wo'er Art Company. "The crowd eventually returned to order after the police came."

Liu said there were only four security guards on Tuesday, which was not enough to keep people in order. "I thought we might have just 200 or 300 visitors," he said. "From today on, we've added four more security guards."

Those leaving the house Thursday seemed suitably spooked by the attraction.

"There are real people in there pretending to be ghosts. It is quite frightening," said a visitor surnamed Li.