Best time to visit Shanghai and Beijing from Australia, month by month
Weather, crowds, prices and holidays for each month in Shanghai and Beijing, matched against Australian school holidays, so you can pick dates that work.
Shanghai and Beijing have real seasons. Shanghai is humid subtropical: hot wet summers, mild winters, a wet spell in June. Beijing is continental: hot dry summers, cold dry winters, and spring winds. The good news is that the best months in both overlap neatly with Australian school holidays in April and September.
The short answer
- Best overall: mid-April to May, and mid-September to early November.
- Best for families on school holidays: the April holidays (Term 1 break) and the September holidays (Term 3 break).
- Avoid: the first week of October (National Day, the busiest week of the year), Chinese New Year (late January to February, when much is closed), and the peak of summer heat in late July and August if you can.
Month by month
| Month | Shanghai | Beijing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2–9°C, grey, dry | -8–2°C, dry, clear | Cheap and quiet except around Chinese New Year |
| February | 3–10°C | -6–5°C | Chinese New Year falls here most years; 2 weeks of closures and full trains |
| March | 6–14°C, warming | 0–12°C, windy | Shoulder season, good value |
| April | 11–20°C, pleasant | 7–20°C, blossoms | Excellent. Australian Term 1 holidays |
| May | 16–25°C, warm | 13–26°C, warm, dry | Excellent. Avoid 1–5 May (Labour Day holiday) |
| June | 20–28°C, plum rains | 18–30°C | Shanghai’s rainy month; Beijing fine |
| July | 25–33°C, humid | 22–31°C, some rain | Hot. Australian winter holidays. Doable with a car and early starts |
| August | 25–33°C, humid | 21–30°C | Hottest, busiest with domestic family travel |
| September | 21–28°C, drying out | 15–26°C, clear | Very good. Australian Term 3 holidays |
| October | 15–23°C, ideal | 8–19°C, golden | Best weather. Avoid 1–7 October |
| November | 9–17°C, crisp | 0–10°C, cold snaps | Good value, Beijing autumn colour early in the month |
| December | 4–11°C, grey | -5–3°C, dry | Quiet, cheap, Christmas is not a holiday |
The holidays that matter
- Chinese New Year: late January to mid-February depending on the year. Trains and flights are full for two weeks either side, many restaurants and small businesses close for a week, and big attractions are packed on the public holiday days. Fine if you want to see it; bad for a first sightseeing trip.
- Qingming (early April), Labour Day (1–5 May), Dragon Boat (June), Mid-Autumn (September or October): three-to-five-day domestic holidays. Attractions and hotels are busy; bookable but plan around them.
- National Day, 1–7 October: the whole country travels. The Great Wall and the Bund are genuinely unpleasant. We do not run tours that week.
For the Great Wall specifically
Spring (April to May) and autumn (late September to early November) are best: clear skies, comfortable walking, and in autumn the hills around Mutianyu turn red and gold. Summer is hazy and hot on the wall; winter is cold but empty and beautiful on a clear day.
Prices and flights
Return fares from Melbourne and Sydney to Shanghai are lowest in February to March and November, highest in late December, January and around Chinese New Year. Hotels in both cities are cheapest in winter and most expensive during the October holiday and big trade fairs (Shanghai in early November for CIIE, Beijing during major conferences).
Our pick for a first trip from Australia
The April school holidays. Weather is good in both cities, the Great Wall is green, the plum rains have not started, and fares are reasonable. Book by January; good hotels in the French Concession and near the Forbidden City fill for those weeks. See how a trip in those dates looks on our Shanghai to Beijing itinerary.
