subject: Best Times to Travel to China [print this page] Best Times to Travel to China
When choosing the best time to travel to China or even to travel in China, you need to take into account both the weather and public holidays.
Weather
In terms of land mass, China is the world's third biggest country. China's climate varies from sub arctic in the North (incredibly cold) to tropical (incredibly hot and sticky) in the South. In terms of topography/terrain China is also very diverse with mountains, deserts, and plateaus in the east and plains, large rivers and hills in the west. Just in terms of elevation you have Mount Everest in Tibet, the highest point in the world with a height of 8,848 meters above sea level You then have the Turpan depression in Xinjiang Autonomous Region with an elevation of 154 meters below sea level. The world's fifth lowest point.
Such extremes means that there are times when the weather will be suitable and make a great travel experience and there are times when the weather will be very unsuitable and make for a travel experience you'd rather not remember.
So in terms of climate, when are good times to visit different places in China?
In general the best times to travel to the north and north east part of China are early Spring and late Autumn. Summer is also a good time to visit this part of China if you can handle dry heat. The time to avoid is winter when you have bone chilling temperatures as low as -40C. The exceptions are travelling for skiing and the Harbin Snow & Ice Festival.
For southern and central China, Spring and Autumn are the best times. Winter is bearable in the southern parts of China in places like Hong Kong, Macau and Hainan but still very cold in central China in places like Hunan and Sichuan provinces.
Unless you thrive on high temperatures, humidity and love sweat, avoid travelling to central China during summer. Chongqing, Wuhan and Nanjing are called the three ovens of China and if you travel there in summer you will be hard pressed to fully appreciate and enjoy these wonderful cities.
Holidays
Chinese holidays can offer unique and captivating insights into a very rich and fascinating culture and they can also cause night mare holidays. In China the main holidays are Spring festival (the equivalent of western Christmas), Qing Ming festival, Mid Autumn festival and the Dragon boat festival.
Of these holidays, the only one I would avoid is the Spring festival where half the country packs up and goes home for the holiday. Literally. To give you an example in the Spring festival of 2011, 221 million people travelled by train. This is the largest migration of people any where in the world.
If you travel in China during this time, train tickets will be next to impossible to buy and bus stations, train stations and most other please chaotic and crowded, Seriously crowded. The two pictures really don't do justice to the state of train stations during this festival. You do not want to know the state of toilets during this time.
This article is Written by Brendon Lang from China Travel Go, an expert blog on travelling in China.
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