When to travel
to China

The short answer

For a general trip covering Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai, April–May and September–October are the best windows: mild temperatures, little rain and clear skies.

The two dates to avoid, because of domestic crowds and prices, are Golden Week (1–7 October) and Chinese New Year, whose date shifts every year with the lunar calendar.

Month by month, by destination

Think of it as a set of windows rather than one season:

• March–April — Yunnan and Guizhou, before the heat and the rains.
• April–May — the best of the classics: Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Huangshan.
• May–June — the green rice terraces of Longji and Guilin.
• June–September — the only good window for the Qinghai–Gansu Grand Route.
• July — rapeseed in bloom at Menyuan; the Mongolian Naadam on the steppe.
• September — golden rice fields and good weather almost everywhere.
• October — the golden poplars of Ejina for two weeks; Huangshan under a sea of clouds.
• November–February — cold, dry winter: fewer people and lower prices, except over Chinese New Year.

The holidays that move the price

Three moments send domestic demand through the roof, and it pays to know them:

• Golden Week (1–7 October) — the whole country travels. Avoid it, or book very far ahead.
• Chinese New Year (late January to mid-February, depending on the year) — two weeks of mass movement.
• Summer holidays (July–August) — mountain and coastal destinations fill up with domestic tourists.

How we decide it with you

When an enquiry reaches us, the first thing we look at is the date. If you are flexible, we suggest the window that fits best with what you want to see. If your dates are fixed, we redesign the itinerary to work in that season: Huangshan in November and Huangshan in July are two different trips.