Chinese New Year (Spring Festival, 春节) is the biggest event in China's annual calendar. It's also the most disruptive travel period you will encounter. If you're planning to be in China around this time, the normal travel playbook doesn't apply. Train tickets disappear in minutes. Entire neighborhoods go dark. Restaurants close for a week.
This guide gives you an honest picture of what changes during Chinese New Year, what's genuinely good about visiting then, and how to prepare if you're going.
When Is Chinese New Year?
Chinese New Year follows the lunar calendar, so the exact date shifts each year. It typically falls between late January and mid-February.
| Year | Chinese New Year Date | |---|---| | 2026 | January 17, 2026 | | 2027 | February 6, 2027 | | 2028 | January 26, 2028 |
The official public holiday runs for 7 days, but the real disruption starts 1-2 weeks before and continues for 2-3 weeks after, as hundreds of millions of people travel home and back for the holiday.
The Scale of What's Happening
Every year, around 9 billion trips are made during the Spring Festival travel rush (春运, chūnyùn). Trains, buses, and flights are fully booked weeks or months in advance. Major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen see significant portions of their migrant workforce travel home — meaning the city gets quieter, and many businesses close.
For most first-time visitors, this is genuinely surprising. You might plan a trip to China expecting a bustling city experience and arrive to find half the restaurants in your neighborhood shuttered for the week.
What Actually Changes
Train and Flight Tickets
This is the most acute pressure point. High-speed rail tickets for popular routes (Beijing–Shanghai, Guangzhou–Wuhan, etc.) sell out within minutes of becoming available. The booking window opens 15 days in advance for most trains.
What to do: Book the moment tickets become available. Use the 12306 app or Trip.com. Build your itinerary around confirmed tickets, not hoped-for ones. If you're flexible on dates, travel 3-4 days before the official holiday or wait until the week after to avoid peak crush.
Accommodation
Hotels in major cities often fill up quickly and prices spike. Smaller guesthouses and boutique hotels are more likely to be closed entirely. Book well in advance and confirm the hotel is actually open during the holiday week.
Food and Restaurants
Many restaurants close for 3-10 days. Street food vendors often go home for the holiday. Larger chain restaurants (KFC, McDonald's, major hotpot chains) stay open. Shopping mall food courts are your backup plan.
In cities with a large tourist economy (Xi'an, Guilin, Chengdu), tourist-oriented restaurants often stay open — or even extend hours — because the domestic tourist traffic fills the gap.
Attractions
Major tourist sites stay open and can be extremely crowded. The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, West Lake in Hangzhou, and major temples see some of their highest visitor numbers of the year. If you're going to these places, book tickets well in advance and arrive early.
Temple fairs (庙会, miào huì) are a highlight of the holiday and worth planning around — festive markets, traditional performances, food stalls, and fireworks in designated areas.
Fireworks and Firecrackers
Beijing and most large cities have banned personal fireworks within city limits, but smaller cities and rural areas can be intensely loud. Fireworks peak on New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and the Lantern Festival (15 days after the new year). Light sleepers: pack earplugs.
Business and Services
Banks are closed. Government services are closed. Some ATMs run out of cash. Most pharmacies remain open. Mobile payments (Alipay, WeChat Pay) work normally — actually more important than ever during this period.
What's Good About Visiting During Chinese New Year
The Atmosphere
Spring Festival is one of the most visually and culturally rich experiences in China. Red lanterns everywhere, temple fairs, traditional performances, special foods, fireworks. If you've always wanted to see what China looks like when it's celebrating, this is it.
Quieter Major Cities
The irony: while tourist sites are packed, the business districts and residential neighborhoods of major cities can be unusually quiet. Restaurants and shops in expat areas are mostly open. Traffic is lighter. Walking around Beijing or Shanghai without the usual urban density is a different experience.
Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival (元宵节, Yuánxiāo Jié) falls on the 15th day of the new year — the official end of Spring Festival. Lantern displays, yuanxiao (sweet rice dumplings), and public celebrations. Less crowded than New Year's Eve, more accessible for foreigners who didn't plan months ahead.
Practical Tips
Book everything 6-8 weeks out. For train tickets, you're constrained to a 15-day booking window — set a reminder and book the moment they open. For flights and hotels, earlier is better.
Have a backup plan for food. Know which restaurants near your hotel are open during the holiday week before you arrive. Check Google Maps (before entering China) or Dianping (inside China) for holiday hours.
Carry more cash than usual. ATMs can run dry during the holiday. Alipay and WeChat Pay cover most transactions, but having ¥500-1000 in cash is sensible.
Dress warmly. Chinese New Year falls in winter. Northern China (Beijing, Harbin) is genuinely cold — temperatures regularly below 0°C. Shanghai is damp and chilly. Southern cities (Guangzhou, Shenzhen) are mild but cool.
Buy firework earplugs. If you're staying in a smaller city or near residential areas, you will be woken up. This is not an exaggeration.
Confirm everything is open. Your hotel is likely fine. Your restaurant isn't guaranteed. Call, message on WeChat, or check recent reviews before depending on any specific venue.
Who Should Avoid Chinese New Year Travel
If you need reliable transportation: The congestion and sold-out trains make this period hard to manage if your schedule is fixed or your trip is time-sensitive.
If you're in China for medical reasons: Hospitals reduce services significantly during the holiday week. Routine appointments and elective procedures are typically postponed. If you need ongoing treatment during this window, coordinate with your hospital or support service well in advance. See how ChinaEasey handles medical trip logistics →
If you're hoping for a quiet cultural experience: The sites are beautiful, but they are very crowded. Manage expectations.
Who Benefits Most
Families with flexible schedules who want the full festival experience — this is genuinely one of the most visually impressive times to be in China.
Travelers already in China who can flow with the holiday rather than fighting it — join a temple fair, eat dumplings, watch the lanterns.
Anyone going to a second or third-tier city where the festival atmosphere is more intimate and less tourist-saturated.
What to Pack Specifically for This Period
- Warm layers (especially for northern/central China)
- Earplugs
- Extra cash beyond your usual budget
- Digital copies of your hotel confirmation (some front desks have skeleton staff)
- Alipay and WeChat Pay loaded — mobile payments are your lifeline when everything else is reduced
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