Chinese Holidays
High tourist season generally lasts all summer long all over the world, and a number of China’s most popular attractions capitalize on that fact by raising their entry fees in the summer months. But tourism in China is different for two reasons: first because “crowded” is a word which fails to adequately describe the number of people at popular tourist attractions, and because for most of the year the locals don’t do much sightseeing. Anyone who has been to the Forbidden City on a Saturday in July is reading this and shaking his head, wondering what I’m on about. But I assure you that whatever crowds you might think you’ve seen on the weekends in July are nothing compared to those you’ll find during China’s major holidays.
The Spring Festival is a family holiday, during which the Chinese don’t do much sightseeing, but they do do an absolutely enormous amount of traveling back to their hometowns. Train tickets go on sale only four days in advance (this is true all year round), so lines to purchase them are long. They’re virtually impossible to get the day of, unless you’re willing to stand. Plane tickets are easier to come by, by prices spike sharply.
The Labor Holiday in May and Golden Week in October are also family holidays to some extent, but many Chinese use these two weeks to do some traveling and sightseeing within China. During these two weeks it would perhaps be best to simply not do any sightseeing. The crowds are truly staggering, particularly for Westerners from much less populous places.
