| Mon, Sep 14 – Sat, Sep 19 | Normal travel days | Normal demand | Business as usual on the ground. If you want to take the train during Golden Week, this is when you buy: sales for October 1 open on September 17. |
| Sun, Sep 20 | Makeup workday (Sunday) | Normal demand | An official working day even though it's a Sunday: offices, government agencies and schools are open. Little changes for travelers – trains, restaurants and attractions run normally. |
| Mon, Sep 21 – Thu, Sep 24 | Normal workdays | Normal demand | Quiet workdays between the makeup workday and the Mid-Autumn Festival. |
| Fri, Sep 25 – Sun, Sep 27 | Mid-Autumn Festival (3 days off) | Increased crowds possible | Public holiday, Friday to Sunday. Lots of family visits and short trips – noticeably busier trains and day-trip spots near big cities, but far less than Golden Week. Unlike 2025, Mid-Autumn falls a week before National Day in 2026. |
| Mon, Sep 28 – Tue, Sep 29 | Last workdays before | Slightly increased crowds possible | Still normal on the ground, but prices are rising: trains and flights for September 30 and October 1 are usually scarce by now. |
| Wed, Sep 30 | Outbound rush | High crowds expected | The last workday before the holiday – the big outbound rush starts in the afternoon. For comparison: for the equivalent day in 2025 (September 30), the railway expected 18.4 million passengers. |
| Thu, Oct 1 – Fri, Oct 2 | Peak travel days | Very high crowds expected | National Day. The first two days are the busiest travel days of the year: on October 1, 2025, the railway carried 23.13 million people – a single-day record. Stations, airports and highways are at their fullest. |
| Sat, Oct 3 – Mon, Oct 5 | Attractions at their fullest | Very high crowds expected | Travelers have arrived – now the attractions are at their fullest. In 2024, Terracotta Army tickets for October 3–5 were largely sold out by September 29. The Palace Museum is open on Monday, October 5, as an exception (public holiday). |
| Tue, Oct 6 – Wed, Oct 7 | Return rush | High crowds expected | Everyone heads home: trains and flights toward the big cities are heavily booked again, while attractions start to empty out. |
| Thu, Oct 8 – Fri, Oct 9 | Right after | Slightly increased crowds possible | The first normal workdays. Hotel prices drop back, attractions are noticeably emptier – the earliest sensible start date if you want to avoid the crowds. |
| Sat, Oct 10 | Makeup workday (Saturday) | Normal demand | An official working day even though it's a Saturday. For travelers it's more of an advantage: day-trip spots are quieter than on a normal Saturday. |
| Sun, Oct 11 – Sun, Oct 18 | Normal autumn travel season | Normal demand | Classic autumn travel season without holiday crowds – in much of China the most pleasant weather of the year. |
