Spring Travel in China: March, April or May, Blossom Dates and Holiday Crowds

Yes, spring is one of the best times to visit China, but March, April and May are three quite different trips. March is still cold in the north, while the south and centre are already flowering: rapeseed fields in Yunnan and Jiangxi and the first cherry blossoms in Wuhan. April is the most comfortable month in most of the country and has the most flowers, though it is also the north's peak month for dust. May is warm everywhere, but it starts with the May Day holiday, one of the busiest travel weeks of the year, and South China's rains get much heavier. In 2027, Qingming falls on Monday 5 April and May Day falls on Saturday 1 May. Plan around those two dates and spring works very well.

Is spring a good time to visit China? March, April and May compared

For a first trip, spring is a strong choice. The classic cities are mild, the countryside is green, and you can plan the trip around flowers. The catch is that conditions change a lot from month to month and from north to south, so the month you pick decides which part of China works best.

March: flowers in the south, winter hanging on in the north

Beijing's average temperature in March is only 7.5 °C (46 °F), so the north still feels like late winter, especially in the mornings. Further south it is a different season. Yunnan's Luoping rapeseed fields are usually at their best from February to the end of March, the rapeseed terraces of Wuyuan in Jiangxi flower in March and April, and Wuhan's cherry season starts in early March. In southern coastal China, February and March are also the months of "return-south weather" (回南天, huí nán tiān), when warm, damp air hits cold walls and floors and everything indoors gets wet.

Early March can still overlap with the end of the Chinese New Year travel rush. In the last two years the rush lasted 40 days, starting about two weeks before New Year. Chinese New Year 2027 falls on 6 February, so the 2027 rush probably finishes in late February or early March; check the official dates, which are announced each winter. Read our winter travel guide if your trip starts in February.

April: the most comfortable month, and the most flowers

April is when most of China is pleasant at the same time. Average temperatures are about 15 °C in Beijing, 16 °C in Shanghai and 17–18 °C in Hangzhou and Kunming. Late cherry blossoms are still out in Beijing until mid-April, and Luoyang's peony festival ran through the whole of April in 2026.

Three things to plan around in April: the Qingming holiday at the start of the month, dust in the north (April is the peak month for it), and the start of South China's first rainy season, which on average begins on 9 April.

May: warm everywhere, crowded at the start

By May the north is properly warm, with Beijing averaging 21 °C. In the south, Guangzhou averages 26 °C in May and gets about 330 mm of rain that month, more than three times its March total. Early May brings the May Day holiday, usually the first five days of the month, when hundreds of millions of Chinese people travel at once (details below). After that, the rest of May is quiet again and is a good time for Beijing, Xi'an and the Silk Road, where the weather is dry and warm.

For how spring compares with the other seasons, see the best time to visit China.

Spring weather by region

The table gives long-term monthly averages for the cities most visitors use. An average mixes day and night, so afternoons are warmer and early mornings are colder than the figure. Temperatures are 1991–2020 averages. Rainfall is the average monthly total for March, April and May; for Hangzhou and Guilin it comes from older 1981–2010 records.

The full monthly picture for every season is in our weather by region guide. Here is what the numbers mean on the ground.

North: Beijing and Xi'an

The north is dry in spring, with little rain until summer, and it warms up fast: Beijing's average climbs by about 14 degrees between March and May. Days can be warm while nights stay cold, so dress in layers, especially in March.

Dust is the north's spring problem. More than 70% of China's dust weather happens in spring, most often in April, then March and May. In a normal spring, northern China sees about 12.5 dust episodes and about 6.3 dusty days. In practice that means a few hazy, yellow-sky days spread over three months, not a whole ruined trip. Beijing also has poplar and willow catkins (杨柳飞絮, yángliǔ fēixù), the white fluff that drifts through the streets. It usually runs from early April to late May, lasts about 20 days in any one area, and is worst between 10:00 and 16:00.

Centre and east: Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuhan and Changsha

This is the classic spring region, with gardens, lakes and tea hills, and it is damp. Hangzhou averages well over 100 mm of rain in each spring month, usually as drizzle and grey days rather than storms. Wuhan can still get sudden cold spells in March and April, so pack one warm layer even for a late-March trip. Further inland, Changsha often has long spells of cool, rainy weather from late March to mid-May.

South: Guangzhou, Guilin and the coast

South China is warm by March and gets wetter as spring goes on. Return-south weather is the first thing visitors notice: in February and March, after a cold spell, warm and humid air condenses on cold surfaces, floors and walls get wet, and laundry does not dry for days. Then comes South China's first rainy season (前汛期, qián xùnqī), which falls mainly in April to June. Rain usually increases sharply after the South China Sea monsoon arrives in mid-to-late May. In Guilin, rainfall rises from about 137 mm in March to about 325 mm in May.

Southwest: Yunnan and Chengdu

Yunnan is the easiest place in China to get good spring weather. Kunming sits at about 1,891 metres, stays between about 15 °C and 20 °C on average from March to May, and gets little rain until May. In Xishuangbanna in the far south of Yunnan, the dry season lasts until April and the rainy season runs from May to October. Chengdu is mild and fairly dry in March and April and gets wetter in May.

Where and when to see spring blossoms

Blossom season moves north and uphill as spring goes on. Yunnan's rapeseed comes first, then the cherry blossoms and rapeseed of central and eastern China, then Beijing's cherries and the April tulips and peonies. Bloom dates move by a week or two every year with the weather, so treat the windows below as typical, not fixed. Each spring, check the official bloom report (花讯, huāxùn) for that year before you lock in dates, and give yourself a few days of slack around any one place.

Cherry blossoms

Wuhan University (武汉大学, Wǔhàn Dàxué). China's best-known cherry blossom spot. The campus has about 1,000 cherry trees, mostly along Cherry Blossom Boulevard and around the Administration Building, and the university gives the season as early March to mid-April. In recent years the campus has required real-name booking during cherry season. In 2025 it opened to the public from 12 to 31 March, bookings for the next three days opened at 20:00 each evening, and the daily limit was 20,000 visitors on weekdays and 40,000 at weekends. Booking was still required in 2026, and Wuhan traffic police suggested taking Metro Line 2 to Jiedaokou or Line 8 to Xiaohongshan and walking in. Outside cherry season the rules are now relaxed: since 13 May 2026 the public can walk in through the Luojia and Hongyi gates without booking, showing a Chinese ID card. If you visit, bring your passport and follow the staff's guidance at the gate. Whether the 2027 cherry season brings back booking limits, and how passport holders can book, has not been announced yet, so check that year's notice on the university's English website before you plan your day; the 2025 cherry-season notice shows what the rules looked like, for reference.

East Lake Cherry Garden (东湖樱花园, Dōng Hú Yīnghuā Yuán), Wuhan. The other big cherry site in Wuhan, inside the Moshan area of East Lake. Across Wuhan, the cherry season runs from early cherries in early March to late cherries in early April. As an example of one year, in 2026 the main bloom at East Lake came after 17 March and the late cherries were at their best around 8 April. After the cherries, the garden moves on to azaleas, peonies and wisteria. Check the ticket price and opening hours on the official channel before you go. Our Wuhan guide covers the rest of the city.

Yuyuantan Park (玉渊潭公园, Yùyuāntán Gōngyuán), Beijing. Beijing's cherry park has nearly 3,000 trees of more than 40 varieties. Its cherry festival opens in mid-to-late March each year, and the late-flowering trees bloom in early April and can be seen until mid-April. During the 2024 festival the adult ticket was 10 yuan, sold through the official "Changyou Gongyuan" (畅游公园) WeChat account and the park's mini program; check the current price before you go. The park asks its regular visitors to come before 9:00 or after 16:00 at weekends and over Qingming, which tells you when the crowds are worst. More on the city is in our Beijing guide.

Yuantouzhu (鼋头渚, Yuántóuzhǔ), Wuxi. A lakeside park on Lake Tai, an easy day trip from Suzhou or Shanghai. Its 2026 cherry festival ran from 1 March to 15 April, with early, mid and late cherries flowering from late February to mid-April and evening viewing sessions. The 2027 festival dates have not been announced. The ticket is 90 yuan and includes the ferry to the island, and the park's normal opening hours are 8:00–16:30. The evening cherry sessions run on separate hours announced each season, so check them on the park's notices before you go.

Rapeseed flowers

Luoping (罗平, Luópíng), Yunnan. The earliest of the big rapeseed areas, about a month ahead of Wuyuan and Hanzhong. A few flowers open in January, and the main bloom is February to March. Cold weather can push it back: in 2026 the county expected the big bloom from mid-to-late February, lasting to the end of March. The best-known viewpoint is Jinjifeng (Golden Rooster Peaks). There the yellow fields wrap around clusters of small, steep limestone hills. Festival dates and ticket prices change each year, so check them with the local tourism office or your hotel before you go.

Wuyuan (婺源, Wùyuán), Jiangxi. Terraced yellow fields around white-walled villages: this is the picture most people have of spring in rural China. The flowers are out in March and April. The lower fields peak first, and the high terraces at Jiangling and Huangling can last into late March or early April; in 2025 the best viewing at Jiangling was 8 March to 5 April. Huangling also has pear and peach blossoms in March. Wuyuan is a slow trip: stay at least one night in or near a village so you can see the terraces in morning light before the tour buses arrive. Village guesthouses near the main viewpoints fill up first on March weekends, so book early; you can compare places to stay around Wuyuan on Booking.com. Village ticket prices are not published in one place, so check them locally. Wuyuan pairs well with Huangshan, the mountain next door; see our Huangshan guide.

Hanzhong (汉中, Hànzhōng), Shaanxi. The big rapeseed valley south of Xi'an. Most fields flower from mid-March to early April. The 2026 rapeseed festival opened on 18 March and ran to mid-April, with a 251 km flower route linking four counties and districts and 15 suggested viewing routes. The 2027 festival date has not been announced yet. It is a good add-on if you are already going to Xi'an.

Tulips, peonies, peach blossoms and spring tea

Taiziwan Park tulips (太子湾公园, Tàizǐwān Gōngyuán), Hangzhou. A tulip show beside West Lake that opens in early March and runs for about a month. In 2024 it ran from 8 March to 14 April, and in 2025 from 7 March to 13 April. During the show the park limits numbers with timed entry: the day is split into five slots, you book through the official West Lake WeChat accounts or mini programs, you can book one day ahead, and one person can book for up to three people. The booking pages are in Chinese and the rules for passport holders are not published, so ask your hotel to help or check on arrival.

Luoyang peonies (牡丹, mǔdan), Henan. The 43rd Luoyang Peony Culture Festival opened on 1 April 2026 and ran through April; the 2027 dates have not been announced. See our Luoyang guide to combine the peonies with the Longmen Grottoes.

Peach and pear blossoms. These are usually part of a bigger spring scene rather than a destination of their own. Wuyuan's Huangling village is one of the easiest places to see them alongside the rapeseed in March.

Longjing tea picking, Hangzhou. Spring is tea season in the hills west of West Lake. In 2026, picking of West Lake Longjing (龙井, Lóngjǐng) tea in the protected gardens at Wengjiashan began on 18 March. Longjing Village is an open village among the tea gardens, free and open all day, so you can walk among the terraces without a tour. Our Hangzhou guide has the rest of the city.

Qingming and May Day: the two spring holidays

Two public holidays fall in spring. Neither closes the sights, but both send huge numbers of Chinese travellers onto the trains and into the famous places at the same time. By law, Qingming is a one-day holiday and Labour Day is two days, 1 and 2 May. In practice, weekends and swapped working days stretch these: under the current rules, Qingming usually becomes a three-day break and Labour Day a five-day break. When extra days off are needed to build the break, people make them up by working on a weekend day before or after it. In 2026, for example, the May Day break ran from 1 to 5 May, and Saturday 9 May became a working day.

Qingming (Tomb-Sweeping Festival)

Qingming (清明节, Qīngmíng Jié) is the day when families visit and clean their ancestors' graves. In 2027, Qingming falls on Monday 5 April. In 2026 the break was 4 to 6 April, with no extra working day. It is a short surge rather than a week-long rush: about 135 million domestic trips were made over the three days in 2026. Expect busy trains for short trips, full flower parks, and heavy traffic on roads out of the cities.

May Day (Labour Day)

May Day (劳动节, Láodòng Jié) is the big one. The break is usually five days from 1 May (1–5 May in 2026). Over the 2026 break, Chinese residents made about 325 million domestic trips, and the transport ministry expected about 1.525 billion journeys between regions, around 305 million a day. For comparison, the seven-day National Day holiday in October 2026 had about 826 million trips. In 2027, 1 May is a Saturday. The exact days off and any make-up working days are announced by the State Council, usually in November of the year before, so check the notice before you book flights in or out of China around that week. Our festival calendar lists the dates once they are published.

What May Day does in practice:

• Trains sell out. China Railway tickets go on sale 15 days ahead, counting the day of travel, and popular routes for the holiday can go on the first day. The release time is set by each departure station and can change.
• Big sights hit their caps. In May Day 2026, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park was already near its daily entry limit, at about 52,000 visitors a day, and Tianmen Mountain's bookings for 2 and 3 May were full.
• Cruises and tickets open early. Li River cruise tickets in Guilin go on sale online 10 days ahead in peak periods such as May Day, and the pier keeps only a few same-day tickets.
• Roads fill up too. Cars with seven seats or fewer pay no expressway tolls over Qingming and Labour Day, so many families drive, and roads to scenic areas near big cities jam.
• Hotels cost more. Rooms in popular cities and scenic towns are harder to find and pricier that week, so book as soon as your dates are fixed.

Our advice: if your dates are flexible, do not travel between cities during the May Day break, usually the first five days of May; check that year's State Council notice for the exact days. The week after is much calmer and the weather is just as good. If you must travel then, book long-distance trains the day they go on sale. An agency such as Trip.com lets you book with an English interface and foreign cards; it cannot create extra seats, so book early either way. Spend the holiday days themselves in one city, visiting smaller sights. For more tactics, read our Golden Week survival guide.

The Water-Splashing Festival in Xishuangbanna

The Dai New Year Water-Splashing Festival (泼水节, Pōshuǐ Jié) in Xishuangbanna, southern Yunnan, is held from 13 to 15 April every year. In 2026 the main water fight took place on the third day, 15 April, in Jinghong's Water-Splashing Square and the main streets around it. Expect to get soaked, and keep your phone in a waterproof pouch.

Spring routes: which part of China when

Which route to choose depends on the month and on what you most want to see. These are our picks for a spring trip.

Jiangnan (Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, plus Wuyuan): best mid-March to April. Gardens, West Lake, the tulip show, Longjing tea and, if you have three extra days, the Wuyuan rapeseed. The cities are close together: about 160 trains a day run from Suzhou's stations to Hangzhou's, and Suzhou to Hangzhou East takes about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 50 minutes. Bring a rain jacket. On spring weekends and short holidays, cars in the West Lake area are restricted, and during the day taxis to Lingyin Temple drop you outside the area so you change to a shuttle bus; the metro plus shuttle bus is the easier way in. See our Jiangnan water towns route and Suzhou guide.

Yunnan (Kunming, Luoping, Dali, Lijiang): best February to April. The most reliable spring weather in China, rapeseed at Luoping in February and March, and the Water-Splashing Festival in April if you add Xishuangbanna. Kunming to Dali is easy by train: on one sample day, 20 October 2026, about 56 trains were scheduled, and the fastest took 1 hour 55 minutes. By May the rains begin to build, especially in Xishuangbanna, so March and April are the safer months. Follow our Yunnan circuit.

The classic route (Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai): best April and the second half of May. All three cities are comfortable in April. Beijing has cherry blossoms at Yuyuantan until mid-April, but also dust and catkins, and from Xi'an you can add a side trip to the Hanzhong rapeseed in late March. Late May is warm and dry in the north and much quieter than the May Day week. See the Beijing–Xi'an–Shanghai route.

Wuhan and central China: best mid-to-late March. Plan your days around the cherry blossoms at Wuhan University and East Lake, then carry on by train. Changsha and Zhangjiajie are on the same route; in Changsha, late March to mid-May is often cool and rainy, so pack for wet weather. See our central China route.

Guilin and Yangshuo: best March and April. The karst hills are green and misty in spring, which suits the Li River well. Rain rises fast, though: May is one of Guilin's wettest months, and very heavy rain can affect river trips, so go earlier in spring if you can. Read our Guilin and Yangshuo guide.

To plan sightseeing days and metro trips in the big cities offline, the WaysChina app has offline metro maps and a simple trip planner.

What to pack for spring

Pack in layers: a warm mid-layer and a light jacket for northern mornings and evenings, short sleeves for warm afternoons, and a rain jacket or umbrella for the centre and south. Bring a few face masks for dusty days in the north, and your usual allergy medicine if you react to pollen or fluff, because Beijing's catkin season covers most of April and May. In the humid south, quick-drying clothes help. For full lists, see what to wear by season and our packing guide.

Spring travel practicalities

Train tickets go on sale 15 days ahead; our guide to booking train tickets with a passport covers 12306 step by step. If a train shows as sold out, the 12306 waitlist (候补, hòubǔ) lets you queue for a seat: you pay in advance, and the money is refunded in full if no seat comes up.

Popular scenic areas can cap visitor numbers and use advance booking under China's Tourism Law, but the Ministry of Culture and Tourism requires every scenic area to keep a staffed ticket window, which helps if an online system will not accept your passport. For forecasts and weather warnings, including dust storms, use the China Meteorological Administration's National Meteorological Centre site, which has an English version. Warnings go up in four colours: blue, yellow, orange and red, with red the most serious.

For the other seasons, see our guides to summer and autumn in China.

Spring in China: FAQ

Last updated: October 2026