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.  

China has three major government holidays: the week long Spring Festival in either January or February (because this holiday marks the lunar New Year the dates are not fixed), the Labor Holiday in the first week of May, and National Holiday, which marks the founding of the People’s Republic, during the first week of October. Each holiday is arranged so that there are seven consecutive days of holiday, with the weekends before and after the holiday rearranged to keep with this schedule. For instance, in 2007 May 1st fell on a Tuesday, so the previous weekend was designated a working weekend so that May 1-7 would be one continuous seven day holiday.

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, either in line or on the train. Plane tickets are easier to come by, by prices spike sharply.

The Labor Holiday in May and National Holiday 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 the crowds at major sightseeing destinations are truly staggering, particularly for Westerners from much less populous places.

Technorati Tags: Chinese Holidays Golden Week Labor Holiday Lunar New Year Spring Festival Traditions and Customs Work and Leisure