glovely

Husband and I are still trying to plan trip to China for mid-September to early October. There is some discussion and debate about if we should do anything to avoid travel during the National Holiday October 1-8. Should we try to finish trip prior to this time? Should we work to be somewhere far away from the "beaten path" at this time? (if so where?) Or is it not really such a big deal? Not really so crazy?

Please help.

Gail

thursdaysd

I traveled over the National Day holiday in '04, including Beijing to Hangzhou by train the day before the actual holiday and it was a bit crazy. There were police doing crowd control at the metro station for Beijing Station, which was packed. Definitely have hotel reservations, and agency support for any travel arrangements, if you travel then.

PeterN_H

The key with the national holiday is to be heading to a big city rather than a resort destination of any kind, to arrive there before the holiday begins, to move to your next destination in the middle of the holiday, and to stay there until after it's over. Once the main outbound rush is complete the usual discounts are available on air fares, train tickets little problem, etc.

The bigger metropolises can be more approachable during this period than normal, with much lighter traffic and lower pollution. The holiday destinations (mountains, scenic areas, beaches, etc.) can be impossible, however.

Peter N-H

glovely

Hmmm so if we wanted to visit Beijing it would be good to get there one or two days before the holiday starts and leave there two days after the holiday begins... but THEN where would we go?

I will be working in Shanghai for 5 days in mid-September, then I thought we would see the Expo for a couple of days, head to Xian for three to four days or so, and then about September 29th until about October 7 when we would fly back to US from Shanghai.... we have to find somewhere which will not be crazy during the holiday... should we just leave China before the holiday? (Having seen Shanghai and Xian and environs?) We are not budget travelers, but we do have to budget... should we look at Vietnam or Korea or somewhere else after Xian? We are good travelers, but we usually frequent the jungles of Central America, not the cities of the world... I fear my husband is going to just give it all up and it will become just a business trip for me only...

I need to figure out how to handle this holiday. I contacted one tour guide group and they basically said, too crowded, you should come another time....

I have never been so unsure about a trip in my life.

I thank you all in advance for your thoughts and opinions.

PeterN_H

Just ignore the comments above which appear (from remarks on other threads) to be from a Chinese travel agency, and are entirely misleading (hotel rooms in larger cities are often more plentiful in the first week of October than they are the following week, for instance). There is no need to book anything, and as long as you avoid heading for a holiday/resort destination on the key travel dates mentioned, but rather get to a big city or other non-resort destination before the holiday week starts and travel onwards in the middle of the week, you'll likely have little difficulty.

Peter N-H

PeterN_H

In case of confusion in understanding the reply immediately above, note the posting to which it refers has been deleted.