China Golden Week: Dates, Crowds and How to Travel Anyway

China has two Golden Weeks (黄金周, huángjīn zhōu): the National Day holiday that starts on 1 October and runs for seven days, or eight when it joins the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the May Day (Labour Day) holiday that starts on 1 May and runs for five days. In 2026 the October week was 1 to 7 October and the May week was 1 to 5 May. These are the busiest travel weeks of the year: over the 2026 National Day week, people in China made 826 million domestic trips. If you can move your trip by a week, move it. If you can't, you can still have a good trip: book trains the day they go on sale, reserve the big sights as soon as booking opens, and spend most of your time in a large city rather than at a famous mountain.

When Golden Week is and how crowded it gets

National Day Golden Week (early October)

By law, National Day (国庆节, Guóqìng Jié) gives everyone three days off, 1 to 3 October. The government then stretches this into a seven-day break starting on 1 October, and into an eight-day break in years when the Mid-Autumn Festival falls next to it. That last case happened in 2025, when the combined holiday ran from 1 to 8 October. In 2026 the two holidays were separate: Mid-Autumn was 25 to 27 September, and National Day was 1 to 7 October.

May Day Golden Week (early May)

Labour Day (劳动节, Láodòng Jié), usually called May Day, has two statutory days off, 1 and 2 May. With the weekend swaps it normally becomes a five-day break. In 2026 it ran from Friday 1 May to Tuesday 5 May, and Saturday 9 May was a working day.

Make-up workdays (调休)

China builds its long holidays by moving weekends around. This is called 调休 (tiáoxiū), which means "swapped rest days". The government gives people a few extra weekdays off in the middle of the holiday, and in return they work on one or two nearby Saturdays or Sundays. For example, in 2026 people worked on Sunday 20 September and Saturday 10 October to pay for the seven-day National Day break. For you, this means two things. The holiday is longer than the three "official" days, and the weekend just before or after Golden Week can be an ordinary working day, with offices, schools and commuter trains running as normal.

The 2027 dates

In 2027, 1 May falls on a Saturday and 1 October on a Friday. Which days are off, and which weekends become workdays, is set by the State Council's annual holiday notice, which usually comes out in November of the year before. Mid-Autumn 2027 is on Wednesday 15 September, so it is not next to National Day that year. Under the standing rule, May Day is normally a five-day break and National Day a seven-day break starting 1 October; the exact days and make-up workdays are confirmed only in the notice. Our China festival calendar lists every public holiday with its days off and make-up workdays once they are announced, and you can see what a notice looks like in the 2026 State Council holiday notice on gov.cn. The 2027 notice will be published on gov.cn in the same way once it is issued.

How crowded it really is

These numbers explain why tickets disappear:

• Domestic trips: the Ministry of Culture and Tourism estimated 826 million domestic trips over the seven days of National Day 2026, and it also counted about 2.98 million inbound visitors (including from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) in the same week, so you will not be the only foreigner there. The ministry published the figures on its official website, and its count of "trips" includes local day outings, not only long journeys.
• May Day is smaller but still big: 325 million domestic trips over the five days of May Day 2026.
• People on the move between cities: the Ministry of Transport estimated about 306 million cross-region journeys per day over National Day 2026, and more than 90% of them were by car or road. May Day 2026 was at a similar daily level, about 305 million.
• Trains: over the 16-day rail period covering Mid-Autumn and National Day 2026, the railways carried 302 million passengers, and 1 October alone set a single-day record of 25.2 million.
• Roads: on National Day, May Day, Spring Festival and Qingming, cars with seven seats or fewer use toll roads for free, from 00:00 on the first day of the holiday until midnight on the last day. Many families wait for that moment to drive off, so motorways and the roads into scenic areas jam on the first day and again on the last.

In practice, the first two days and the last day of the holiday are the worst for transport, and the middle days are the worst at the famous sights.

Should you reschedule?

If your dates can move, move them. That is our clear recommendation for a first trip to China. Golden Week does not make China unsafe or closed (shops, restaurants and sights stay open), but it makes everything you need harder to get: train seats, hotel rooms at normal prices, and time slots at the sights you came for.

Reschedule if any of these apply to you:

• Your plan has several train or plane journeys between cities. Every one of them is harder to book in Golden Week.
• The trip is built around one famous place: the Great Wall at Badaling, the Forbidden City, Huangshan, Zhangjiajie, West Lake or the Terracotta Army.
• You are on a tight budget. Hotels set their own holiday prices, so the same room usually costs more in Golden Week.
• You don't like crowds, or you are travelling with small children or older relatives who will find long queues hard.

Golden Week can still work if:

• You stay in one or two big cities and get around by metro. Beijing and Shanghai are full of domestic visitors at the landmarks, but business districts and residential neighbourhoods get quieter, because many people who live there leave town.
• You are flexible about which sights you see and happy to swap a famous one for a less famous one.
• You want to see the holiday itself: National Day decorations, flags and lit-up buildings, and the general holiday mood.

How far to move: one week usually makes a real difference. For October, the second half of the month is a good choice, and remember that the Saturday or Sunday right after the holiday may be a make-up workday, so it will feel like a normal working day rather than a holiday. For May, the second and third weeks are much easier than the first. Arriving a few days before the holiday starts helps less than you might think, because the trains on the day before the holiday are among the hardest to book. Our best time to visit China guide compares the months, and autumn travel in China covers October in more detail.

If you can't move: how to book trains, flights, hotels and sights

Train tickets

Trains are the hardest part. Tickets open 14 days ahead (a 15-day sales window counting today). There is no single national release time: each station publishes its own opening time, and it can change, so check the time for your departure station in 12306 the day before. The official sellers are the 12306 website, the 12306 app and the 12306 mini-program inside Alipay, and they sell tickets from 5:00 until 1:00 the next morning, with a shorter window on Tuesdays (check the 12306 English help page for the current hours).

What works in practice:

• Get your account ready a week early. A foreign passport has to pass identity verification in 12306 before you can buy online; you can upload a photo of the passport or take it to a station ticket window. Don't leave this to the morning tickets go on sale.
• Be online at the opening time. With the 15-day window, tickets for 1 October go on sale on 17 September and tickets for 1 May on 17 April. On popular routes the morning and early-afternoon trains go first.
• Use the waitlist (候补, hòubǔ) if your train shows sold out. You pay in advance, the system keeps trying around the clock as other people return tickets, and you get your money back if nothing comes through. The limits are in the table below.
• Avoid the first day and the last day. 1 October 2026 was the busiest day ever recorded on China's railways. Travelling on day three or four is much easier.
• Accept a slower train or a different seat class. A slower D train, a different station in the same city, or an overnight sleeper often still has seats when the fastest G trains are gone.

Here are the presale, waitlist and refund rules in one place:

If 12306 won't verify your passport in time, or you would rather book in English with a foreign card, you can buy the same train tickets through Trip.com. It is selling the same railway tickets, so it can't create seats on a train that is already sold out. Our guide on how to book China train tickets with a foreign passport walks through both options, and the high-speed train guide explains train types and seat classes.

Flights

Domestic flights are the backup when trains sell out, but holiday fares are higher and the cheap seats go early. Book as soon as your dates are fixed, especially for flights on the first and last days of the holiday.

Hotels

Hotel room prices in China are set by each hotel, and hotels are allowed to raise them for holidays. The rules still protect you: the price must be clearly shown, hidden fees are not allowed, and once an online booking is confirmed, the platform must not cancel it or raise the price on its own. So the best move is to book early, choose a rate with free cancellation, and keep the confirmation email. Search for holiday-week rooms on Booking.com as soon as your dates are firm. Before you pay, read our guide to hotel booking and registration rules so you know what to check for a foreign passport.

Sights: reservations and daily limits

By law, every scenic area has an official maximum number of visitors, must publish it, and can use advance booking to control numbers; when numbers get close to the limit it has to announce this in advance and divert visitors. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has asked scenic areas to keep a staffed ticket window and to drop booking where it is never full. In Golden Week, though, the famous sites are full, so "book ahead" is the rule. The ones foreign visitors most often need:

• Forbidden City (故宫, Gùgōng), Beijing: no same-day tickets; booking opens 7 days ahead at 20:00 Beijing time, and the daily limit is 40,000 visitors. Foreign visitors book with a passport on the Palace Museum's international ticketing platform, which accepts international credit cards. For a holiday date, be online at 20:00 a week before.
• National Museum of China, Beijing: free, but you must book online up to 7 days ahead, and new tickets are released every day at 17:00.
• Badaling Great Wall: real-name tickets that foreigners can buy with a passport, and no separate reservation is needed; you can buy at the site. That doesn't mean it is quiet. Our Beijing travel guide covers the other Great Wall sections and what else to book ahead.
• Huangshan: tickets are booked on the official Huangshan Tourism mini-program, and the park suggests booking at least three days ahead. When the daily limit is reached it opens a waitlist that fills from cancellations. Foreign visitors choose "other ID type" and upload their passport.
• Zhangjiajie: the Wulingyuan core area uses real-name booking by time slot and entrance gate all year. Tianmen Mountain sells a limited number of tickets each day and was fully booked on 2 and 3 May 2026.
• Lingyin Temple, Hangzhou: free since December 2025, but you must book a morning or afternoon slot at least one day ahead, up to 7 days ahead; foreigners book with a passport.
• Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding: all tickets are booked online in your name, up to 14 days ahead, with a daily limit of 85,000 visitors.

Most other sights in Beijing no longer need a reservation, so you can turn up and buy a ticket, or walk in. Book only through the official channels. Resold "guaranteed" holiday tickets from strangers are a common way to lose money.

Where to avoid and where it's easier

Places to avoid (or visit very early)

• Famous mountains. Huangshan, Zhangjiajie and similar mountain parks are the hardest places to visit in Golden Week. The paths are narrow, the cable cars have long queues, and the parks cap numbers. In National Day 2022, Huangshan limited daily entries to 25,000 people. If a mountain is the reason for your trip, go another week; our Huangshan guide and Zhangjiajie guide cover the rest of the year.
• West Lake, Hangzhou. The lake is a free, open park with no walls or gates. That makes it the easiest holiday outing for millions of people. During the May Day and National Day holidays, the number of cars allowed into the Lingyin area and onto Nanshan Road is limited, and taxis can't drive into the Lingyin area in the daytime, so you change to a shuttle bus outside it. Our Hangzhou travel guide explains the metro-and-shuttle way in.
• The Bund and Nanjing Road, Shanghai. Both are free and open around the clock. On holiday evenings the riverside is packed shoulder to shoulder, while early in the morning it is calm. See our Shanghai travel guide for what else to do in the city.
• Hongyadong, Chongqing. The lit-up cliffside complex is free, but it has a daily limit of 122,000 visitors and closes its gates when it gets too full.
• The Great Wall at Badaling. It is the best-known section and the easiest to reach from Beijing, so it is where most holiday groups go. If you want the Wall in Golden Week, our Beijing travel guide compares the other sections.
• The Forbidden City and the Terracotta Army. Both can sell out on holiday days. The Terracotta Army sells tickets only online in your name (foreigners book with a passport), has a daily limit of 65,000 visitors, and stops selling once that limit is reached. Go if you have a confirmed ticket, but plan the rest of the day around something quieter.

Places that are easier

• Big cities used as cities. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen lose many of their own residents during the holiday. Away from the headline sights, ordinary neighbourhoods, parks, food streets and smaller museums stay pleasant. A morning in a Beijing hutong or an afternoon in Shanghai's former French Concession can feel calmer than a normal weekend.
• Cities that aren't headline holiday destinations. Second-tier cities with their own history, such as Tianjin, an easy high-speed train ride from Beijing, still get holiday visitors, but usually far fewer than the famous names. Our Tianjin guide is a good starting point.
• Countryside instead of a single famous peak. Ordinary rural areas and smaller parks with many paths cope better than one famous mountain with one way up. Popular regions still fill at their best-known stops, so pick the less famous places within them.
• Everyday neighbourhood life rather than the top sight. In a city like Chengdu, the panda base is packed on holiday mornings, but teahouses, parks and local food streets are a good way to spend the busiest days. Our Chengdu travel guide covers both.

On the ground: tactics that save hours

Start early

Most domestic tour groups and families arrive mid-morning, so the first hour after opening is the calmest time at almost every site. At Huangshan over National Day 2026, the park and its cable cars opened at 6:00 from 2 to 6 October. Hiking-trail entrances there close at 15:00 on holidays, after which you can only go up by cable car. At the Forbidden City, pick the morning slot and be at the gate when it opens. Then do the famous place first and spend the afternoon somewhere quieter.

Give yourself extra time at stations

Every railway passenger goes through a security check. If you travel on a foreign passport, you enter and exit through a staffed gate, because the automatic gates can't read passports. In Golden Week both lines are long. Aim to be inside the station 60 minutes before departure at a big hub such as Beijing South or Shanghai Hongqiao.

Use the metro, and check holiday timetables

Taxis and ride-hailing cars get stuck in holiday traffic around the sights, so the metro is usually faster. Cities sometimes extend metro hours for the holiday: over National Day 2024, for example, Beijing kept seven lines serving railway stations and airports open later, with Line 4 from Beijing South running until 0:30. These changes are announced shortly before each holiday, so check the operator's notice for your dates rather than counting on the 2024 times. Shanghai also publishes its holiday late-running plans separately each time. If you want metro routes and a day plan that still work offline in a crowded station, the WaysChina app has both.

Weather in early October and early May

Both Golden Weeks fall in good travel weather, which is part of why everyone travels then. Using 1991–2020 averages, October is cool and dry in the north, with a monthly mean of 13.8°C in Beijing and 14.2°C in Xi'an. It is milder in the east and southwest, with 19.7°C in Shanghai and 17.3°C in Chengdu. May is warmer: 21.3°C in Beijing and 20.9°C in Shanghai. These are whole-month averages, so early October is usually a little warmer than the October figure and early May a little cooler than the May figure. In the far south, May is one of the wettest months, with Guangzhou averaging about 330 mm of rain that month. In the north, spring dust storms are most common in April but still happen in May. For city-by-city numbers see weather by region, and for packing see clothing by season.

Summary

Golden Week means two holidays: National Day from 1 October (seven days, eight when it joins Mid-Autumn) and May Day from 1 May (five days), with nearby weekends swapped into workdays. Hundreds of millions of people travel at once, so trains, hotels and famous sights fill up. If you can, move your trip by a week. If you can't, verify your 12306 account early, buy trains the day they go on sale, book the Forbidden City and other big sights the moment booking opens, and spend the holiday in a city rather than on a mountain. Check the festival calendar for the confirmed dates in your year.

Last updated: October 2026