Contemplating a trip to Beijing in early October/03. What to expect, weather and crowds. Thanks for any info.

Weather should be nice, a lot like October on the East Coast of the US. Could be anywhere from the low 50's to the high 60s. Very little rain during October, so all in all it is a good month to go.

FYI that October 1 and 2 are national holidays and it will be very, very crowed at major tourists sites, esp Beijing. I was there one year and was actually frightened at one point in the Forbidden City as there was no crowd control. I would avoid places like the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven on Oct 1 and 2. If you go to the Great Wall, go to one of the further points like access Mitianyu , and avoid Badaling which is the closest access point from Beijing and will be even more crowded than usual.

That first week in October is a kind of "golden week" in the PRC as some people take the whole week off. The worst are Oct 1 and 2 however, otherwise it is crowded but liveable.

Actually the National Day holiday is three days, to which for several years now have been added two more. People are generally obliged to work the previous weekend, and then are given five working days and a weekend off. The exact dates are only given out shortly before the holiday, and it's rumoured than in coming years the requirement to work the one weekend will be dropped.

Since very few Chinese indeed have any discretionary holiday, this week in October and a similar week at the beginning of May have become the peaks of the Chinese domestic travel season.

Since the disposable income for leisure travel is more found in the big cities, although travelling around China at that time is tiresome, it's not bad being in Beijing, since there's more outflow of people than inflow, the large polluters like Capital Iron and Steel shut down, improving air quality, and the traffic flows noticeably more freely. In fact it's even possible to get around easily during the rush hour.

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

Ah Peter, always with the corrections, and still plugging your book, I see despite the Fodors guidelines. . .

While I would agree that "getting around " Beijing may be a bit easier during the holidays in October, I still stand by my statement regarding visiting the main tourist sites during those days. Of the four times I have been to the Forbidden City, October 1 was the day which was by far the most crowded, and which made the visit not very pleasant.

Casyn2, if you have any flexibility as to the time of your trip, I would say plan your trip to arrive after October 6 (the end of the holiday Golden Week), as it will be much less crowded and you may find good deals.

I just couldn't help but post this.

I've been to Beijing over 30 times. Met and married my wife there. Everyone is correct about waiting until the second week in October.

Now, even though I've been to Beijing lots, and also to several other cities in China on many occaisions, my knowledge of China doesn't begin to compare with Peter N-H! He has provided a wealth of information to untold numbers of people on this forum and I wish people would stop taking "shots" at him.

My wife and I will visit Europe next spring and I have experienced enough self-serving responses on that forum. We don't need people who have nothing to do but take digs at others. If one cannot help another on this forum please stop using it.

Thanks everyone, this a trip, which was delayed in April. we are looking at Oct. 11 till Oct. 20. What is surprising that the hotel cost nearly doubled.

That's absurd. As Peter N-H would suggest, forget your travel agent and deal directly with the hotel yourself. What hotel is it?

Perhaps casyn2 will tell us, but the figure is quite likely on the Web site. The second week in October can indeed be very busy with overlap from the first week holiday, it's a popular month for Western visitors, and there are occasionally conferences or exhibitions in that month. But this pricing probably reflects last year's reality rather than this year's post-SARS picture, unless there's a 100% bounce-back straight away, which is possible, but unlikely.

It's also true, however, that booking this far in advance will not ever produce decent prices, and unless the hotel fills up completely, prices will be a very great deal lower nearer the time, even if booked over the Web directly. Unless you absolutely must have a particular hotel on a particular date, it's best to wait until just before travel. People on the ground in Beijing, and those who just turn up, will always beat the lowest Web rate, and sometimes by a very large margin indeed, depending on how good the hotel is at yield management. You should realize that prices on some of these Web sites are attached to dynamic databases and can even change hourly according to demand.

To get some idea of what prices are being publicized locally, go to www.xianzai.com, and subscribe either to the Xianzai Beijing email newsletter, or to a newsletter dedicated to hotel offers.

I might be wrong would expect prices still to be well down in October. Contacts in the hotel industry tell me there's no sign of much of a bounce-back yet.

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

The Hotel we would staying at is the Palace Hotel. In April we where quoted $850.00 for 6 nights and now , for October $1670.00 for 7 nights.
You think I could do better than going throug my agent.
Thanks again for the info.

I have stayed at the Palace a few times, and always enjoyed it. A very nice hotel in a good location. I can't tell from your message if you have contacted the hotel directly to get a quote, if not, I would try this.

The Palace Hotel Beijing
Goldfish Lane, Wangfujing, Beijing

Tel: +86 10 6559 2888
Fax: +86 10 6512 9050
E-mail: [email protected]

Also try the website for the Peninsula Group, which owns and runs the Palace. They run special offers for their hotels. Their website is www.peninsula.com.

Also don't forget that April was in the middle of the SARS epidemic, so you may have been offered a very good rate at that time. Although Asia has not begun to recover its tourism base since SARS, prices have gone back up a bit.

Hi

My wife and I went to Beijing in March. I have posted a trip report on my homepage www.gardkarlsen.com. Maybe you can find some useful information there

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway