Winter in Shanghai and Beijing: cold, clear, empty and cheaper, with the honest trade-offs
What a December to February China trip is really like for Australians escaping the summer: Beijing's dry cold and blue skies, Shanghai's grey damp, the Forbidden City and the Wall without crowds, the frozen lakes and the skating, hotel prices at their lowest, the air-quality question, what to wear (and buy there), the Chinese New Year weeks to avoid or embrace, and a winter week that works.
Australians travel in their summer holidays, which means a lot of enquiries for December, January and February. Winter in eastern China is not the obvious choice and it has real virtues: Beijing in winter is the clearest, emptiest and in some ways most beautiful version of the city, the Great Wall under snow is one of the great sights of Asia, hotels are at their cheapest, and the big sights need no queue. It also has a grey, damp Shanghai, short days and a New Year that shuts the small restaurants. Here is the honest picture, so you can decide.
The two winters
Beijing is continental: December to February averages around freezing by day and well below at night, dry, often windy, and frequently brilliantly clear. Snow falls a few times a season and rarely lasts in the city; in the hills and on the Wall it lingers. It is a proper winter that a coat, a hat and gloves handle.
Shanghai is maritime: 3 to 10°C by day, grey more often than not, damp in a way that feels colder than the number, with occasional sleet and rare snow. Indoor heating in older buildings is weaker than in the north; the hotels are warm, the lane restaurants less so. It is Melbourne in July with worse light.
Suzhou and Hangzhou follow Shanghai, with the bonus that the gardens and the lake in a dusting of snow are famous subjects of a thousand years of painting, and nearly empty.
What winter gives you
- Empty sights. The Forbidden City’s seven-day booking is trivial, the Temple of Heaven park is yours and the retirees’, Mutianyu has no coaches, and the Suzhou gardens at opening have a dozen people in them. The Beijing itinerary runs at half the walking effort because there is no queue in it.
- The Wall in snow. A dusting on the towers at Mutianyu, the hills white, the cable car running, hardly anyone there: the single best reason to come in winter. Dress for wind on the ridge; the toboggan closes in ice.
- Clear Beijing skies. Winter’s dry air gives the clearest views of the year on the good days; the bad days are the other side of the coin, below.
- Frozen lakes. Houhai and Beihai freeze from late December and the city skates, sledges and ice-bikes on them; the Summer Palace’s lake too. It is a Beijing winter pleasure that visitors rarely see and children love.
- Prices. Hotels in both cities are at their annual low from early December to mid-January and again from after the Lantern Festival to March; flights too, outside the Australian school-holiday peak. The where to stay guides apply.
- Food. Winter is hotpot and lamb season in the north, hairy crab’s last weeks and the braised dishes in Shanghai, and the dumpling feast of New Year; the regional food guide has it.
What winter costs you
- Short days. Sunset is around 5 pm in both cities in December; plan the sights for the morning and the middle of the day and the evenings for restaurants, shows and the lit Bund, as the nights guide suggests.
- Shanghai’s grey. The Bund in drizzle is atmospheric once; the skyline from the Shanghai Tower needs a clear day, which winter gives less often. The rainy day guide is the fallback.
- Air quality in Beijing. Winter heating brings the worst air days of the year, usually a few days at a time between clear spells. Check the index each morning; on a bad day do the museums and the hutong lunches and save the Wall for the next clear one, which a guide can juggle. Asthma sufferers bring their preventers; the healthcare guide has the rest.
- Chinese New Year. Falling in late January or February, it closes factories and small restaurants for weeks and fills the big sights for one, as the Chinese New Year guide sets out. Either embrace it for the lanterns and the temple fairs or travel in early December or late February around it.
- Cold feet and children. Small children in a pram on a 0°C Beijing afternoon are miserable; keep outdoor stretches short and the car warm. The baby guide and the elderly parents guide both counsel shorter days.
What to wear, and what to buy there
A real winter coat (down is the Chinese standard and sold cheaply everywhere if you arrive without), a hat, gloves, a scarf, thermal layers for the Wall, waterproof shoes with grip for Shanghai’s wet pavements and Beijing’s icy ones, and lip balm for the dry north. Beijing’s markets and the Uniqlo stores in every mall sell all of it for less than Melbourne; many visitors buy the coat on day one and give it to a relative on the last. Hotels, trains and malls are overheated; dress in layers you can shed. The packing guide has the list.
A winter week
| Day | Where | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shanghai | Arrive; the Bund lit at 5.30 pm; hotpot |
| 2 | Shanghai | Yu Garden early, the Concession lanes, the Shanghai Museum East, a tea house |
| 3 | Suzhou | The gardens empty, noodles, the canal boat if the wind allows |
| 4 | Train to Beijing | Arrive mid-afternoon; the hutongs at dusk; duck |
| 5 | Beijing | The Forbidden City at opening, Jingshan in clear air, skating on Houhai |
| 6 | Beijing | The Wall at Mutianyu on the clearest day of the stay |
| 7 | Beijing | The Temple of Heaven morning, the Lama Temple, fly home |
The guide swaps days 5 and 6 on the air-quality forecast, which is the main skill of running Beijing in winter.
Our honest advice
Winter is the second-best season for Beijing and the fourth-best for Shanghai; if the trip is weighted to the north and you can handle the cold, go, and go in early December or after the Lantern Festival for the quiet and the prices. If the trip is Shanghai and the water towns, wait for March or, better, autumn. If the school holidays decide it, book early for the January peak, avoid the New Year week unless you want it, and tell us the dates on the contact page; we run the winter route every year and know which days to keep indoors.
