China

Best time to visit

Best time to travel

Spring and autumn suit many central and eastern routes, but altitude, desert, monsoon and national holiday periods require precise regional planning.

Travel tips

Travel by Ildy tips

• Set your watch to Beijing time everywhere: all of China officially runs on one time zone, and trains and flights use it even in the far west. In Xinjiang some locals also use an unofficial clock two hours behind, so confirm which time is meant for any appointment.
• In Hangzhou, taste Longjing ('Dragon Well') green tea in the tea villages above West Lake; the most prized leaves are picked in early spring, before the Qingming festival in early April.
• Avoid famous sites during the National Day Golden Week from 1 October: the seven-day holiday is one of the busiest travel periods of the year across the country.
• The Ming builders of the Great Wall bound its bricks with a mortar of sticky-rice soup mixed with slaked lime – an organic-inorganic recipe that has helped the wall endure.