8 Epic Reasons To Spend Winter in China
Thinking about travelling to China but not sure about the best time to go? Here are 8 epic reasons why we think you should spend the winter in China.
China. It’s a hugely popular destination to visit, with 60.7million international tourists arriving in the country in 2017 alone, making it the fourth most popular travel destination in the world.
Summer in China can be unbearably hot and humid and so visitors (and domestic tourists) mostly travel in spring and autumn. And I can see why.
In spring, to a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, cherry, plum and peach blossoms emerge alongside other spring flowers, transforming the winter landscape in a riot of colour. Meanwhile autumn heralds some of the most picturesque views, with people flocking to see the Great Wall bathed in tawny golden hues. These seasons are pretty universally considered to be the best time of year to visit China.
And yet, despite the promise of breathtaking views and indisputably gorgeous scenery, we chose to spend the winter in China.
Whilst it may not look like it, this is China in winter (well in some parts of Sichuan province anyway!)
Let me be honest - I am not a lover of the cold. I’ve been known to describe the weather as ‘Arctic’ when we are still in double digits; prefer dressing in shorts and t-shirts than being bundled up in multiple layers (resulting in the ‘brown penguin’ look) and always take a shawl and cardigan with me to shopping malls that go overboard with the AC (Malaysian malls I’m looking at you).
The possibility of wet socks, damp leaves and grey slushy snow can give me sleepless nights. (I am actually vomming into my mouth right now just thinking about it.)
But winter in China is indisputably awesome. Wonderstruck watching the sinking sun set the north face of Mount Everest alight, I had to be reminded that I was standing still in -16C. The white plume of my breath crystallising on my face was of little concern as a fleet of voracious vultures consumed a dead body in a Tibetan sky burial ritual. Frigid fingers and toes became a distant memory at the sight of postcard-perfect winter wonderlands.
Sunset at Everest Base Camp
Ready to pack your thermals yet or do you need more convincing?
If you are craving new winter experiences and are happy to wrap yourself up (in several layers in my case), China is one of the most spectacular countries to visit in winter.
Here are eight reasons why you should consider travelling to China in the winter.
8 Epic Reasons To Spend The Winter In China
1) It’s low season so you can avoid the crowds and enjoy the tranquility.
The Great Wall of China in winter is a stress-free experience
If there is one thing that we all know about China it’s that it’s hella crowded.
Domestic and international tourists lurve to travel the length and breadth of the country during the spring and autumn and whilst we agree that the blossoms or changing leaves are indeed beautiful, do you really want to enjoy that stunning scenery with about 10,000 other people?
The low season is without doubt the best time of year to go to China. There are far fewer people even at the most popular tourist sites like the Great Wall and Chengdu Panda Base. Instead of having to negotiate throngs of people taking thousands of selfies, we sometimes actually had places all to ourselves and could enjoy the peace and - would you believe it - quiet.
They might be a little slippery, but the walking trails of Siguniangshan (Four Sisters Mountain) National Park were practically empty.
We found winter travel in China to be fairly relaxing and stress-free: we could actually take our time and enjoy the places that we visited without having to worry about queuing for hours, dealing with huge crowds or jostling to take photos in popular places.
2) Travelling in winter gives you a lot more flexibility
A winter sunset in Yangshuo, southern China
If like us, you also like to plan your travels on the fly, then a trip to China in winter is definitely for you. When we arrived in China we only had the first two weeks of our two-month trip planned and booked (and that included an 8-day tour in Tibet). Whilst we’d read about the places we’d like to visit and I’d bookmarked about a 1000 websites, we hadn’t actually made many concrete plans.
And honestly, in winter this wasn’t a problem at all. Travelling outside of the peak tourism season made it much easier for us to book accommodation and tickets for trains and buses as these were less likely to get booked up.
We also enjoyed the flexibility this gave us as we could change our travel plans on a whim - for instance, we ended up visiting Songpan and Litang after reading about these areas on the road which lead to us having some unforgettable experiences!
Songpan old town in Sichuan
3) Low season means more bang for your buck
Admiring the A-M-A-ZING views from the Qinghai-Tibet railway journey.
China isn’t the cheapest place to travel and it can be a struggle for budget travellers, even if you are just surviving on a diet of packet noodles from 7/11. (Tip: don’t do this, it’s super depressing and not great for your health).
However, the winter season in China actually gives you better deals and lower prices.
Flights to China in winter are much cheaper and as the number of tourists dwindles significantly in the low season, hotels and guesthouses that choose to stay open during the colder months have to get creative if they want to attract tourists.
Whilst most places simply slash their prices significantly, others offer upgrades, discounts on breakfast and more. These savings alone make winter the cheapest time to travel to China.
We found the best accommodation deals online, although some places continued to surprise us once we had arrived. At Ease Hostel in Guilin, we were upgraded to a room with a river view for the duration of our stay.
Similarly in Beijing, where we had booked an economy twin room (that looked a little like a prison cell) at King’s Joy Hotel near Tiananmen Square for the grand total of £11 for two nights (living our best budget life), we were given a free upgrade to a deluxe room with a sofa and huge ass TV!
There are hefty entrance fees for all popular tourist sites in China, however, some of these also have off-peak prices and whilst this doesn’t make them cheap, any saving is a bonus.
Thinking of visiting Tibet? Good news - winter is also the cheapest time to visit the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR).
Yamdrok Lake in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. (I ended up dipping my fingers in the water to see how cold it was and IMMEDIATELY regretted it).
Like the rest of China, accommodation prices and entry fees into tourist attractions are lower in Tibet during the winter - often by as much as 50%. Similarly, travel agencies offering Tibet tours reduce their prices by 10-15% during the low season.
Whilst we wouldn’t describe a Tibet tour as being even remotely affordable (with a discount, prices for an 8-day tour of the TAR are still around $690 per person), you can nevertheless save over $300 on a tour compared to visiting the region in peak season. Not a saving to be sniffed at.
Fewer crowds at the Potala Palace means that you can explore the Dalai Lama’s former winter residence at your leisure. Plus the entry fee is 50% off!
Importantly, getting approval for a Tibet travel permit is much quicker and easier during the winter. If you want to enter Tibet by train via the incredibly scenic Qinghai-Tibet railway, you are also more likely to be able to get a seat as there is much less demand for tickets.
4) Top-notch winter comfort food
These potatoes almost burnt our tongues off, but it was just we needed in winter. Check out the number of chillies…
If saving money doesn’t tickle your pickles, then perhaps the thought of top to toe winter warming comfort food will do the trick.
Chinese food varies significantly from region to region (something I didn’t realise before my trip when I thought it was just a land of rice - oh how ignorant I was).
Each place we visited offered extraordinarily satisfying hearty winter food - from spicy, bubbling Sichuan hot pot (a traditional winter dish) in Chengdu, to melt-in-your-mouth vegetarian dumplings liberally drizzled with lashings of chilli oil and inch-wide biang biang noodles (that you simply have to slurp down) in Xian’s Muslim quarter, China’s winter food was simply spectacular and warmed us from the inside out.
Hell yes.
And I haven’t even gotten on to the countless stir-fried aubergine and chilli dishes that I guzzled down as a vegetarian in China. Mmm...aubergine… (ya’ll thinking about the emoji, just stop right now).
Street food connoisseurs should also keep an eye out for traditional winter delicacies such as roasted chestnuts, grilled sweet potatoes and stuffed nan-like breads. Yums!
5) Breathtaking scenery that makes you feel like it’s Christmas every damn day
What’s not to love about these views?
China is a country that is perennially beautiful, but a visit to the country during winter really gives you them winter wonderland feels.
We go a bit weak at the knees for any kind of natural beauty and China delivered again and again. Snow-capped mountains and azure coloured lakes? Check. The Great Wall of China in winter, empty of tourists and covered in picturesque snowfall? Check. Frozen waterfalls? Check. Icy sprawling plateaus, empty save for a single frozen river winding off into the distance? Check.
Most adjectives are rendered useless when it comes to describing China’s winter scenery, because they honestly can’t do it justice. I can perhaps try and sum it up in two words: f@*king awesome (now, I didn’t say that I would sum it up eloquently).
The stupendously gorgeous Huanglong National Scenic Area.
Just…wow.
Yes, all of these wonderful sights involved some kind of entry fee, but I will put down any kind of cash monies for jaw-dropping views.
6) Fantastic hiking that’s worth the workout.
And once again, here are some views to die for.
China has hikes a plenty, but they aren’t your usual ‘hike up a hill to see a view’ kind of experiences. Like the country’s scenery, the hiking is next-level and will captivate even the most well travelled nature junkie.
Hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge over three days, we passed waterfalls, mountains, rice terraces and edged our way along sheer rocky ledges as the Jinsha River thundered below us. Walking in the deep valleys of Siguniangshan National Park, we wandered past brightly coloured prayer flags dancing in the wind, through fairytale pine forests dusted with snow, and around still, mirror-like lakes. The gold and white Tibetan stupas scattered over the valleys seemed all the more magnificent surrounded by towering snow-clad mountains.
A Tibetan stupa at Siguniangshan National Park in Sichuan, China.
Granted, these hikes would be beautiful throughout the year, but the wintery weather gave the scenery a much more magical touch. Another bonus of hiking in winter is that we barely met anyone on the trails, because, well, it’s winter.
Worried about your fitness levels? Most places have hiking trails suitable for everyone, from complete beginners to uber-fit trail runners.
And if you think you are too old for all this hiking malarky, don’t fret: they’ve actually built cable cars in a lot of scenic areas and up huge-ass mountains. Hate them or love them this is why you’ll find really old people wandering around the tops of huge ass mountains without being even slightly out of puff.
Personally I hate the way cable cars look and despise the extortionate cost but grudgingly admit that they have at times saved my dying legs.
7) Winter is the driest time of year in China
There’s lots of pretty snow but not a lot of rain during the Chinese winter.
‘Dry winter’ would be an oxymoron in the UK, but luckily, we are talking about China!
One of the benefits of a winter holiday in China is that whilst it is cold, the weather is extremely dry. This makes it, in my esteemed opinion of course, the best time of year to travel to China.
If you don’t mind soggy socks and steamy bus journeys (the latter being more sodden than sexual) then more power to you, but I find that travelling anywhere in the rain makes things so much more of a slog and I try to avoid it at all costs.
Such is my hatred of ‘the wet’ that I purchased a pair of waterproof hiking shoes specifically for this trip. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that I barely had to worry about wet feet or getting rained on. In fact, the winter weather in China is so dry that it only rained on two days of the entire trip!
8) Unique winter experiences
China is full of unique experiences for the first time traveler (we kept joking that we were seeing something new everyday) but in winter, with fewer tourists around, you have much more of a chance to experience authentic local life.
This isn’t actually as banal as it sounds, because everyday life here is actually pretty interesting.
In winter, nomadic pilgrims from all over Tibet arrive in Lhasa to visit the most sacred temples and monasteries. Winter is pilgrimage season and in the capital of Tibet this is evident as throngs of people complete their circumambulations of Jokhang temple, with many prostrating themselves on the bitingly cold ground.
Tibetan nomads at Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.
A Tibetan woman prostrates in prayer, near Jokhang temple in Lhasa
A visit to Tibet in winter is a quieter and far more authentic experience. We loved just whiling away time in teahouses, sipping cup after cup of hot sweet tea and chatting to locals; wandering aimlessly around the backstreets of Lhasa where we were invited to watch a shell and dice game (that I still don’t understand the rules of) with a group of men drinking beer and laughing raucously; and ended up shopping for a winter coat for Vincent (his 10 ringgit coat purchased secondhand in Malaysia was failing him, surprise, surprise) and had a laugh with people while doing so.
Money, dice, shells, cigarettes and alcohol were all involved…
…but I am still not sure how to play this game. Answers on a postcard please (or in the comments).
In fact, our experiences in the TAR lead us to seek out other Tibetan areas of Sichuan province like Songpan and Litang, where we were fortunate enough to be invited to sample the food for a wedding and had the privilege of witnessing a sky burial - an experience that neither of us is likely to forget.
What every wedding meal needs: fried dough sticks.
Scenic, unique, quirky, and memorable, choosing to have a winter adventure in China was definitely one of the best decisions we have ever made.
China is an awesome place to visit in the winter! What’s your favourite winter holiday destination? Let us know in the comments below!
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