ellenbw

We are planning a trip to China in October. It is looking like our optimal time will be arrival on Oct 4th or 5th in Bejing. Sunday, October 1st is National Day which we definitely want to avoid due to massive crowds at the major sites. I'm sure that the weekend of Sept 29-Oct 1st is the big celebration, but is October 4th far enough from the holiday, or do the major sites stay busy for the entire week?

CanadaChinaTraveller

No, it is equally bad. People have the whole week off.

Shanghainese

Definitely avoid that week, try arrive on the 9th when people go back to work.

temppeternh

You have the dates wrong. The holiday this year is Oct 1 to 7, with 8 added on because the Mid-Autumn Festival one-day holiday, a movable, lunar holiday, is on Oct 4. (Usually there are five consecutive working days off plus one weekend, with the other weekend worked in order to add two working days to the three-day holiday. This year Sat 30 Sep will be worked but Sun 8 Oct not, because it will be taken as a substitute for the simultaneous one-day holiday on Oct 4. Chinese holidays are rarely straightforward.)

Sites are busy all week, but a significant proportion of the Beijing population exits, and much of the rest isn't going to work, so getting around town is significantly easier, and traffic flows a great deal better. Mid-week there's a sort of lull, as everyone's already left or arrived. Pollution is typically lighter, and unlike at Spring Festival restaurants and other services powered by migrant labour tend to stay open. It's not all bad news.

ellenbw

Thanks for the responses.
Wow Temppeternh, that holiday plan is complex! Although it reminds me of Jewish holidays - lunar calendar and all!