Country guide
China
The Great Wall, the karst rivers of Guilin, Sichuan's spice and Shanghai's skyline, at a scale no single trip can cover.
Currency
CNY
Language
Mandarin Chinese
English
Limited
Payment
Cash preferred
Power
Type A / I
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+86
Destinations
Beijing
Eight centuries of Chinese capital on one axis: the Forbidden City at its centre, the Great Wall along the ridgeline north.
✓ best Apr-May, Sep-OctChengdu
The giant pandas get you here; the teahouses, the hotpot and the mountains behind the city are why people stay longer than planned.
✓ best Mar-May, Oct-NovDunhuang
The greatest surviving gallery of Buddhist painting on earth, cut into a desert cliff where the empire ended and the Silk Road forked.
✓ best Mar-OctGuangzhou
Chinese food writing has a saying - to eat, you go to Guangzhou - and the city has spent centuries earning it.
✓ best Oct-JanGuilin
China's most painted landscape, with a river cruise through the karst as the set piece and the Dragon's Backbone terraces two hours north.
✓ best Feb, Sep-DecHangzhou
The lake Chinese painters and poets have been composing for a thousand years, ringed by causeways and pagodas, with the country's most famous green tea grown on the hills behind.
✓ best Oct-NovHarbin
A Russian railway city in Manchuria that spends every winter carving its own frozen river into a floodlit metropolis, then lets it melt.
✓ best Apr-May, SepHuangshan
The mountain behind a thousand scroll paintings: pinnacles, wind-bent pines and cloud below your feet, climbed on stone stairs or skipped by cable car.
✓ best Oct-NovKashgar
China's westernmost city and the Silk Road's great Pamir-foot oasis: the country's largest mosque, a Sunday livestock market, and the Karakoram Highway starting at the edge of town.
✓ best Mar-OctKunming
The Spring City: 1,900 metres up, flowers in the cold months, no real winter, and the way in to everything else in Yunnan.
✓ best Oct-MayLhasa
Tibet's holy city at 3,650 m: the Potala on its crag, and the Jokhang at the heart of a pilgrim circuit that never stops turning.
✓ best Apr-Jun, Sep-OctLijiang
A UNESCO old town of canals and courtyards at 2,400 m, with a glaciered snow mountain and China's most famous gorge trek on its doorstep.
✓ best Oct-MaySanya
The only corner of China with a tropical winter - and the beach holiday the rest of the country flies south to take.
✓ best Nov-AprShanghai
The one Chinese city built to look outwards - a treaty-port waterfront on one bank, the country's tallest skyline on the other, and the eating to match.
✓ best Mar-May, Oct-NovSuzhou
The classical Chinese garden at its source: nine UNESCO-listed gardens of rock and water inside a canal city, half an hour by train from Shanghai.
✓ best Apr, Oct-NovXi'an
The eastern end of the Silk Road, capital to thirteen dynasties, and the city an emperor built a clay army to guard.
✓ best Mar-OctXiamen
A treaty port that turned into a holiday: Xiamen kept the villas, the pianos and the noodles, and left the hurry to everywhere else.
✓ best Oct-MarThe sweet-spot windows
Good weather, thinner crowds, better prices: the windows worth aiming for.
| Where | When | Why it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| The north (Beijing, Xian) | May, Sep-Oct | Warm dry spring or crisp autumn foliage. Avoid Jul-Aug rains | Golden Week (early Oct) = huge crowds |
| The south (Guangzhou, Guilin) | Oct-Dec | Dry, warm, post-typhoon. Nov best. Winter escape for HK/Guilin | May-Aug = wet + typhoons |
| Tibet | May, Sep-Oct | Sunny, dry, mild. Clearest just before/after summer rains | Winter cold + permits. Jul-Aug rain |
| Yunnan | Feb-Apr, Oct-Nov | Eternal spring at its best: dry, mild, flowers or autumn color | Jun-Aug rainy season |
Climate zones, month by month
China has 17 distinct climate zones. The right month depends on where in the country you're going.
Beijing →
✓ Best Apr-May, Sep-Oct · ✗ Avoid Jul-Aug
Conditions Jan-Feb Cold & dry · Mar Windy & dusty · Apr Pleasant spring · May Warm & dry · Jun Hot building · Jul Hot & wet · Aug Heavy rain · Sep Crisp & clear · Oct Autumn foliage · Nov-Dec Cold & dry
Watch for Dec-Feb smog risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Chengdu Sichuan →
✓ Best Mar-May, Oct-Nov
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Dunhuang Gansu →
✓ Best Mar-Oct · ✗ Avoid Dec-Feb
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Guangzhou Guangdong →
✓ Best Oct-Jan · ✗ Avoid May-Aug
Conditions Jan Mild & dry · Feb Mild & damp · Mar Warming humid · Apr Warm & wet · May Hot & wet · Jun Monsoon · Jul Hot + typhoons · Aug Typhoon peak · Sep Typhoon risk · Oct Dry & warm · Nov Dry & pleasant · Dec Mild & festive
Watch for May-Jun, Aug monsoon flooding risk · Jul-Oct typhoons risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Guilin Guangxi →
✓ Best Feb, Sep-Dec · ✗ Avoid May-Jul
Watch for May-Jul monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Hangzhou Zhejiang →
✓ Best Oct-Nov · ✗ Avoid Jun
Watch for Jun monsoon flooding risk · Jul-Oct typhoons risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Harbin Heilongjiang →
✓ Best Apr-May, Sep · ✗ Avoid Nov-Mar
Watch for Dec-Feb extreme cold risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Huangshan Anhui →
✓ Best Oct-Nov · ✗ Avoid May-Jul
Watch for May-Jul monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Kashgar Xinjiang →
✓ Best Mar-Oct · ✗ Avoid Dec-Feb
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Kunming Yunnan →
✓ Best Oct-May
Conditions Jan Mild & sunny · Feb Mild & dry · Mar Spring flowers · Apr Warm & dry · May Warm · Jun Rainy season · Jul Wet + mushrooms · Aug Wet · Sep Rains easing · Oct Cool & clear · Nov Autumn color · Dec Mild & sunny
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Lhasa Tibet →
✓ Best Apr-Jun, Sep-Oct
Conditions Jan Cold & sunny · Feb Cold & dry · Mar Cold & windy · Apr Mild & sunny · May Warm & clear · Jun Warm · Jul Rainy evenings · Aug Rainy · Sep Clearing up · Oct Cool & sunny · Nov-Dec Cold & dry
Watch for all year altitude risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Lijiang Yunnan →
✓ Best Oct-May · ✗ Avoid Jul
Watch for Jul monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Sanya Hainan →
✓ Best Nov-Apr · ✗ Avoid Jul-Oct
Watch for Jul-Oct typhoons risk · Jul-Oct monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Shanghai →
✓ Best Mar-May, Oct-Nov · ✗ Avoid Jun-Aug
Conditions Jan-Feb Cold & damp · Mar Peach blossom · Apr Mild & pleasant · May Warm · Jun Plum rains · Jul Hot & humid · Aug Hot + typhoons · Sep Typhoon risk · Oct Mild & clear · Nov Cool & pleasant · Dec Cold
Watch for Jul-Oct typhoons risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Suzhou Jiangsu →
✓ Best Apr, Oct-Nov · ✗ Avoid Jul
Watch for Jul-Oct typhoons risk · Jul monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Xi'an Shaanxi →
✓ Best Mar-Oct · ✗ Avoid Dec-Jan
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Xiamen Fujian →
✓ Best Oct-Mar
Watch for Jul-Oct typhoons risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions