Chinese New Year Travel Survival Guide

Spring Festival (春节, Chūnjié) — the Lunar New Year holiday — is China's most significant annual event. It triggers the largest annual human migration in the world: hundreds of millions of workers travel home from coastal cities to inland provinces over a ten-day window. If you are in China during this period without planning, the consequences range from inconvenient to genuinely stranded.

When It Happens

The festival falls on the first day of the first lunar month, which lands anywhere between late January and mid-February in the Gregorian calendar. The official public holiday is seven days, but the effective disruption to transport, commerce, and services spans three to four weeks: the two weeks before the New Year, the holiday week, and the week after.

What Closes

This is the most important practical fact: China does not stay open for tourists during Spring Festival in the way that Western countries stay open for foreign visitors at Christmas.

Restaurants: many restaurants — particularly smaller, family-run establishments — close for 7–21 days while the owners go home. Major hotels and tourist-facing chains stay open. In cities like Chengdu, Chongqing, and Xi'an, the restaurant scene does not close meaningfully, but your neighbourhood dumpling shop certainly might.

Small shops and services: barbers, independent tailors, some pharmacies, local grocery stores — a significant proportion close. Supermarket chains and convenience stores (7-Eleven, Family Mart, Lawson) stay open.

Tourist attractions: most major sites stay open, often with longer hours and higher prices.

Transport: the Core Problem

Train tickets for the 40-day Spring Festival period (chunyun, 春运) go on sale 15 days in advance via the 12306 app. Popular routes sell out within minutes. Standing tickets (站票) remain available after seating sells out.

Domestic flights are less affected by the ticket-availability crisis but prices rise sharply in the two weeks around New Year.

What Is Good About Travelling at New Year

The fireworks. The food — jiaozi, niangao, fish. The lantern festival on the 15th day (Yuanxiao). Empty coastal cities that normally have heavy traffic.

Practical Recommendations

Avoid travel 3 days before New Year through Day 3. Book accommodation months in advance. Have patience with reduced-capacity services. The travellers who enjoy Spring Festival are those who planned for the actual conditions.