My husband and I - 2 older Americans- will be visiting China April 2018 and our 10 day trip will include the May 1 holiday-our dates are not very flexible. From what I can determine the holiday will be 3 days starting April 29 through May 1.

This is our second visit to China -we spent 3 weeks in 2005-so we have seen many of the big tourist sights and plan this time to explore some places of more natural beauty and try to see a different part of the Great Wall than we saw on our previous visit. We will be using public transport and local tour guides.
My question relates to where we should plan to be over the holiday knowing that everywhere will probably be crowded but perhaps some places less than others?
I am wondering if the cities might be less busy as people head out to visit family etc or perhaps it would be better to go somewhere in the countryside such as Yangzhou mountain retreat And settle in for a 2 or 3 night stay.

We do have the option to arrive into either Shanghai or Beijing on April 26 or 27-we are flying in from Tokyo where we will have been for 12 days.
I appreciate any advice.

In general the bigger cities, where there's more disposable income, do tend to empty out a bit, but crowds also enter from the countryside for some sight-seeing. The result is that driving around the city becomes a great deal easier than usual (the out-of-towners come by public transport), but that the major sights are very crowded. Sights not on the list of priorities for the out-of-towners, are not, and Beijing offers a large numbers of those.

There's much day tripping and weekending in the countryside by residents who haven't gone further afield, however, so this isn't really the time to be considering the same, as roads out of town will be clogged.

Anything vaguely resembling a holiday destination, resort, or retreat, will be packed. If you're going to be in Beijing, but have already seen the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Lama Temple, etc. then circumstances may suit you quite well. There's a great deal more to see.

Note that the official dates of the 2018 holidays will be announced sometimes in December. Normally it should be from April 29 to May 1 inclusive.
The main problem is traffic. Especially on the first day and last day. There were major traffic jams this year at the end of the Qingming festival (another long weekend. Two years ago I was in Nanjing during the May 1st holidays and we decided to drive somewhere out of town to some nature reserve. We never got close to the place and drove back to my friend's place and play card.
So I would avoid "moving" on the first and last day of the holiday.

Thank you both I think Beijing is probably a good place to hang out -any recommendations for sights that might not be visited by folks coming in from the country? We have seen the sights mentioned above but I know Beijing has lots more to offer.

I should have asked if you think Shanghai might be a better choice than Beijing for the 29,30,1st

@firstlake

The dates for the May holiday in 2018 are expected to be 30 April–2 May with many taking the previous weekend off, too.

> any recommendations for sights that might not be visited by folks coming in from the country?

Just about anywhere except the obvious big names. So avoid Forbidden City, Tian'an Men Square, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palaces of any kind, the Lama Temple, the Great Wall, the National Museum of China, Qian Men, the Wangfujing shopping area, and the Bell Tower/Drum Tower/Hou Hai area. Most of what's left shouldn't be much of a problem. Possibly avoid Prince Gong's Mansion.

Instead, the Altar of Agriculture, perhaps; Imperial College/Confucius Temple; Capital Museum; but there's so much to see the list of possibilities is long. Here's an alphabetically sorted list of links to information on these options:

http://bit.ly/2mzT0e6

And here they are sorted by the nearest metro station:

http://bit.ly/2mv1L8s

The situation will be the same in Shanghai as in Beijing.