Beijing During National Day Holidays

[McMer]

:confused:We booked our first Asia cruise to Japan and China and recently realized that our last few days in Bejing will be during their National Day holidays (Oct. 1-7). Has anyone ever been there during this period and will we find tourism difficult with the crowds? We've certainly delt with crowds in many other locations but are hoping this won't be overwhelming. Any advice appreciated.

[Keith1010]

I read a post on one of the cruise line boards about this holiday. Evidently they are limiting Tourists to 90,000 per day in each major location. This might make things a challenge.

 

Keith

[Turtles06]

If you do a search on the "Viking China" thread under Other Cruise Lines (search "national holiday"), I think you'll find some posts from folks who were in China during the first week in October talking about how crowded it was. From what I read in guide books when we were planning our own trip to China (which was this past May), that is one of the weeks when domestic tourism is at its peak.

 

Frommer's discusses that here:

 

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/china/3330020006.html

 

One thing I would suggest, regardless of when you are in Beijing, but particularly if you will be there at that time, is to hire a private guide. You'll find getting around that much easier. There's a thread or two on here with recent recommendations. I'd be happy to post mine again.

[greatam]

:confused:We booked our first Asia cruise to Japan and China and recently realized that our last few days in Bejing will be during their National Day holidays (Oct. 1-7). Has anyone ever been there during this period and will we find tourism difficult with the crowds? We've certainly delt with crowds in many other locations but are hoping this won't be overwhelming. Any advice appreciated.

 

My first business trip to China (October 2005) I was dumb enough to fly into Beijing on October 1.

 

It didn't look bad at the airport and I was staying at the Beijing Hotel (now Raffles Beijing Hotel) and they sent a car to pick me up, so everything was OK.

 

I had a meeting early the following morning and other than the traffic, that was OK. BUT I decided to go out exploring that afternoon. Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City are walking distance to Beijing Hotel, so away I went. WOW!!! I don't think you could have put one more person in Tiananmen Square. Crowded, crowded, crowded with all the families having picnics, walking around, etc. etc.

 

And what really got me-the Chinese don't use diapers as we think of them so the toddlers were crapping all over the concrete. They just opened up the snaps on the pants and let the kids go to the bathroom. Also, the amount of garbage that was just thrown all over was very upsetting to American eyes.

(China is a hugely dirty country and throwing trash in a proper receptacle/recycle/environmental issues are not something they believe in or try to abide by). You don't notice the trash strewn all over other times because there are people constantly cleaning the sidewalks and picking up trash. But with the huge crowds, it overwhelmed the street cleaners.

 

Next morning, meetings so I didn't see much of the crowds. But the third day, I wanted to go to the Great Wall. Had the hotel make arrangements to use one of their cars and driver to get me there. When we got close, buses were backed up for probably a mile. The driver sat in line for about 10 minutes, then got out and talked to one of the bus drivers. The next thing I knew, he was getting out of line and away we went into a back entrance. He pulled up right in front of the cable car entrance. He spoke limited English but good enough to let me know how to get tickets for the cable car, where to eat and where to shop. He was going to wait for me no matter how long it took.

 

The parking lot was a zoo. Buses all over the place, Chinese tourists PACKED into the buses (worse than the NYC subway at rush hour). The cable car was PACKED. Once up on top, the crowds kind of thinned out because of all the space but there were massive groups of Chinese tourists with their guides almost every way I walked. I saw very few Westerners but had a great time wandering around. Came back down, got a few T shirts, went over to look at the llama (very out of place in Beijing), walked through a couple of the "junk" stores (they were truly Chinese junk) and back to the hotel I went. I spoke to the concierge when I got back to the hotel. He is the one who told me that a private car is the ONLY way to go to the Badaling section of the Great Wall during Golden Week. The buses often have a 1-2 hour wait to get into the parking lot. He also told me to stay away from Forbidden City because of the massive crowds.

 

And then leaving the airport-I was on my way to Shenzhen for more meetings. WOW again!!! Packed, packed, packed. Bathroom waits looked like the women's bathrooms at a rock concert. Plane was oversold and I think the ONLY reason I got on the plane was because I had a Cathay ticket from the USA.

 

I sure wouldn't go again during Golden Week and expect to have a very enjoyable time sightseeing. Particularly as even more Chinese people have money elevating them into the middle class than 6 years ago. They will travel during this period which will make the attractions in Beijing even more crowded. Trains, subways, hotels and plane tickets will be packed, packed, packed and Western style hotels and intra China plane tickets will be expensive. I have been back to China at least 20 times since then. It was MUCH better at other times.

[McMer]

Thanks all - I really appreciate the advice. This is a cruise that we chose after having to cancel a previous one. No doubt we should have investigated further, but luckily we will have a guide throughout our days in Beijing. What would I do without these boards? Thanks again.:)

[Otis]

Sorry to add fuel to the fire, but I am in China now and would never, ever consider coming here at holiday time again. One of our port stops was cancelled due to the crowding, which was a disappointment. The next,Xiamen, had crowds that cannot possibly be described. Our cruise bulletin said that this city of 3 million was expecting approx. 1.5 million additional visitors. This is not a major destination, so the feeling of Beijing is likely to be even worse at major attractions. That said, with a private guide you will have a fighting chance of seeing some of what this fascinating city Beijing offers. In all honesty, however,knowing what I now know I would have rescheduled.

[sailaway5]

I have read that May 1 is also a holiday in China. Does anyone know if this particular day (or days around this) is also a problem for traveling in China. We are considering a precruise land tour during this time out of Beijing and don't want to book this if it is another travel problem.

[greatam]

I have read that May 1 is also a holiday in China. Does anyone know if this particular day (or days around this) is also a problem for traveling in China. We are considering a precruise land tour during this time out of Beijing and don't want to book this if it is another travel problem.

 

International Labor Day (May 1) is the holiday for Communists worldwide (celebrated in Russia, in the North in Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Sudan, etc. etc.). Always made me laugh that the USA immigration protests were on the Communist Party's biggest holiday. Did they not realize it was a COMMUNIST holiday or were they just showing their underlying philosophy???

 

China has SOMEWHAT cut back the week long holiday in May (this happened about 2007-2008) and not as many people get the entire week off as before. The Government thought 3 official week long holidays (both Golden Weeks-October and late Jan/early Feb as well as the Communist holiday) cut into economic prosperity and have been discouraging people from the week off in May. BUT it is still a big holiday with a lot of Chinese traveling. 2012-the OFFICIAL holiday is May 1-3. Government offices and anything official will be closed those days. We can't move any of our freight out of China the first week in May because there is no official to stamp the paperwork for Customs and Tariff dept.

 

Can you move your trip to the week before or the week after? As I have posted before, more and more Chinese people now have money to be able to travel. So the amount of people that are traveling domestically has increased a lot just because they have never been able to travel before. Book everything VERY early to avoid conflicts and disappointments.

[Turtles06]

I have read that May 1 is also a holiday in China. Does anyone know if this particular day (or days around this) is also a problem for traveling in China. We are considering a precruise land tour during this time out of Beijing and don't want to book this if it is another travel problem.

 

I think you've gotten very good advice above.

 

And just about anything you will read in travel guides says to avoid traveling to China during their national holidays if at all possible, including the May holidays.

[greatam]

Sorry to add fuel to the fire, but I am in China now and would never, ever consider coming here at holiday time again. One of our port stops was cancelled due to the crowding, which was a disappointment. The next,Xiamen, had crowds that cannot possibly be described. Our cruise bulletin said that this city of 3 million was expecting approx. 1.5 million additional visitors. This is not a major destination, so the feeling of Beijing is likely to be even worse at major attractions. That said, with a private guide you will have a fighting chance of seeing some of what this fascinating city Beijing offers. In all honesty, however,knowing what I now know I would have rescheduled.

 

That is just amazing that is was too crowded for a port stop. So sorry you chose this time to go on your cruise. But enjoy what you can!!!

[Bowie MeMe]

Thanks to GreatAm we found out about the Chinese holiday the night before we booked. We considered Oct 9 sailing and that probably would be OK but then we wanted to do 5 day precruise in Beijing and Xian that is Oct. 4 and we like

1-2 days in town for private tour/caution time therefore the dreaded whole week of Golden Week. We have changed to the Oct. 25,2012 reverse journey.

 

I don't like big crowds and will try to NOT be where the crowds are likely to be -- our next cruise starts out of Rio Jan. 21, 2012 because that is the last cruise before Carnival in Rio. Crowds, additional costs for hotel /guides/ food/ and sights and then fighting to get in places is just not for me. To go into the most crowded country in the world at the most crowded time of year is truly frightening. I'm just hoping that we can manage Beijing the 2nd week of Nov.

[pbnjrockette]

Yikes! Hopefully the crowds and vacationers will all have disappeared by next week! We leave for Beijing on Monday, Oct. 10 (arriving Oct. 11).

[Otis]

You will be fine next week. Enjoy!

 

To elaborate on what has been said, a newspaper article today said that there were 130,000 people in the Forbidden City on Sunday alone and 150,000 people at the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum in Nanjing.

[Bowie MeMe]

I would have done the Oct. 7, 2012 but I wanted to do a precruise (with Princess for now) 3 days Beijing and 2 days Xian and that would mean doing Beijing at holiday time or flying back to Beijing from Bangkok where I also want to spend some time. I think you will be OK in your trip OP and you will make do and have fun. Since it was still early enough in the planning for me to change things up I chose to do so.

[lahore]

As the heading says, sorry to be a downer but I work in Hong Kong a lot. A couple of years ago I went to Shenzhen in Golden Week. It was, without doubt, the most horrendous experience I have ever had on the underground. I thought people were going to die, it was like a stampede, the crush was unbearable. When i got back to Hong Kong and talked about it with my HKG friends they said they would never have considered it in their wildest nightmares.

[Bowie MeMe]

See you are going on Nautica. Love that ship --she's lovely. I would have loved to do Asia with Oceania but didn't have the iten. I wanted at the time I wanted it. We did Istanbul to Athens on Nautica and it was so wonderful. Hope your trips are as great! I still have some of the weight I put on with the milkshakes!!!

[lahore]

Yes, it will be our fourth and fifth on Nautica, we love Oceania.

[sailaway5]

You will be fine next week. Enjoy!

 

To elaborate on what has been said, a newspaper article today said that there were 130,000 people in the Forbidden City on Sunday alone and 150,000 people at the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum in Nanjing.

 

So sorry to hear about the crowds while you are on your cruise. We just cancelled and changed our (next year) October, 2012 cruise to May, 2013 because of reading about the crowds during Golden Week. We are hoping the May 1st date will not be much of a problem.....We will closely monitor next May just to be sure.

 

We are looking forward to reading your full review upon your return.

Have a safe journey home.

[aussiecruzer]

Just to put a slightly different view forward, we have just spent 3 days in Shanghai Oct 5th to 8th and did not experience any crowd problems at all even in the popular tourist destinations. Mind you we have had a private tour guide and driver, but I have been pleasantly surprised. We have planned Beijing and Xian though for after our cruise which we will board today in Shanghai as I was also well aware of the crowd issues in these places in Golden Week. Shanghai is a wonderful clean modern city - very impressive indeed!:)

[Philob]

Just an FYI; another couple of weeks to take into consideration is around Chinese New Year (Jan 23 2012); seems like 2/3rds of the country is off the week before and the remaining 1/3rd the week after.

 

Just imagine a company like Foxconn, mfg of the iPad/Phone, have 1 million employees in So. China, they ALL get the same week off and 95% wants to get home for the holiday :eek:

[sailaway5]

International Labor Day (May 1) is the holiday for Communists worldwide (celebrated in Russia, in the North in Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Sudan, etc. etc.). Always made me laugh that the USA immigration protests were on the Communist Party's biggest holiday. Did they not realize it was a COMMUNIST holiday or were they just showing their underlying philosophy???

 

China has SOMEWHAT cut back the week long holiday in May (this happened about 2007-2008) and not as many people get the entire week off as before. The Government thought 3 official week long holidays (both Golden Weeks-October and late Jan/early Feb as well as the Communist holiday) cut into economic prosperity and have been discouraging people from the week off in May. BUT it is still a big holiday with a lot of Chinese traveling. 2012-the OFFICIAL holiday is May 1-3. Government offices and anything official will be closed those days. We can't move any of our freight out of China the first week in May because there is no official to stamp the paperwork for Customs and Tariff dept.

 

Can you move your trip to the week before or the week after? As I have posted before, more and more Chinese people now have money to be able to travel. So the amount of people that are traveling domestically has increased a lot just because they have never been able to travel before. Book everything VERY early to avoid conflicts and disappointments.

 

Thank you for the valuable holiday information.

Have been considering moving our trip around (again) because of the May 1st holiday. We are now considering a Viking River Cruise from Shanghai to Beijing, which should cover all of the sites we want to see in China.

[Turtles06]

Thank you for the valuable holiday information.

Have been considering moving our trip around (again) because of the May 1st holiday. We are now considering a Viking River Cruise from Shanghai to Beijing, which should cover all of the sites we want to see in China.

 

We did the Viking trip in May (in the Beijing to Shanghai direction). It was the most extraordinary trip we've ever taken and I can't recommend it more highly. Viking does a phenomenal job in China.

 

If you haven't already found them, the "Viking China" Part I and Part II threads in the "Cruise Lines A-O/Other Cruise Lines" forum will provide you with a ton of helpful info on this trip, and a way to ask questions of folks who have recently taken it.