China is a huge country with endless travel opportunities. However, during holidays, millions of migrant workers return home and millions of other Chinese travel, so travelers may want to think seriously about rescheduling. At the very least, travel should be planned well in advance. Every mode of transportation is crowded and tickets of any kind are hard to come by, so it may be necessary to book well in advance (especially for those traveling from remote western China to the east coast or in the opposite direction). Train and other tickets are usually quite easy to buy in China, but difficulties arising from crowded conditions at these times cannot be overstated. Some travelers who have been stranded at these times, unable to buy tickets have managed to get airplane tickets, which tend to sell out more slowly. Around the Chinese New Year, many stores and other businesses will close for several days, a week, or even longer.
China has three major annual holidays:
- National Day - October 1
- Chinese New Year or Spring Festival (春节 chūnjié) - late January / mid-February
- Labor Day (May Day) - May 1
These aren't one-day holidays. Workers get at least a week or two off for Chinese New Year; students get four-six weeks. Both groups get about a week for National Day and Labor Day. Also, during early July millions of university students go home and in late August they return to school, jamming transportation options, especially between the east coast and the western provinces of Sichuan, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
Spring Festival is especially busy. Not only is it the longest holiday, it is also a traditional time to visit family, much as Christmas is in the West. More or less all the university students (20-odd million of them!) go home, and more or less all the migrant workers who have left their farms and villages for better pay in the cities go home. This is often the only chance they have. Everyone wants to go home, and China has a lot of "everyone"!
A complete list of Chinese festivals would be very long, since many areas or ethnic groups have their own local ones and even among the Han Chinese, the festivals celebrated vary from region to region. See listings for individual towns for details. Here is a list of some of the nationally important ones not mentioned above:
- Lantern Festival - 15th day of the 1st lunar month, just after Chinese New Year, usually in February or March. In some cities, such as Quanzhou, this is a big festival with elaborate lanterns all over town.
- Qingming Festival - About April 4-6, is called "grave sweeping day" in English. Cemeteries are crowded with people who go to sweep tombs and offer sacrifices. Traffic on the way to the cemeteries becomes heavy.
- Dragon Boat Festival - 5th day of the 5th lunar month, usually in June. Boat races are a traditional part of it.
- Double Seventh Festival - 7th day of the 7th lunar month, usually August, is a festival of romance, sort of a Chinese Valentine's Day.
- Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Cake Festival - 15th day of the 8th lunar month, usually in October. People meet outside, putting food on tables and looking up at the sky while talking about life.
- Double Ninth Festival or Chongyang Festival - 9th day of the 9th lunar month, usually in October.
- Winter Solstice Festival - December 22 or 23.
