Chinese National Day on October 1 is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year for the travel industry in China. It is a time when the people of China have several days vacation and millions of people return home to visit relatives.

This holiday period is one to avoid if you are thinking of a vacation in China. The trains and airliners are quite often filled to capacity, or beyond, and it is very difficult to obtain tickets for domestic trips within China.

Another peak period in China is the Spring Festival holiday or Lunar New Year which is normally in January or February. The date of the holiday varies as it is based on the lunar calendar. The next Spring Festival will be on January 26, 2009 which is the start of the year of the Ox. Spring Festival in 2010 falls on February 14.

One good thing about Chinese New Year is if you are in China you can quite often get a

cheap airfare out of Beijing

at the same time everyone is heading to China from overseas. I once got a return ticket to the United States for $250 as flights to Beijing were full however in the opposite direction they were empty.

After the National Day holiday it is probably a good time to find a cheap airfare to Beijing as the winter months are approaching and the Christmas period is still some time away. October is still not so cold that you cannot get out and about in Beijing without thick winter clothing.

Beijing International Airport Terminal 3

For Australian travellers I have checked several travel booking sites to compare flight prices for 1 October and 15 October from Australia. The later date was around $500 cheaper than the peak period. I could find a flight with Air China from Sydney to Beijing for 970.60 Australian dollars on 15 October returning 22 October. The 1 October flight to China costs $1483.

For US travellers it is actually cheaper to fly on 1 October compared with 15 October. The cheapest flight to Beijing from Los Angeles on 1 October was $910 USD. This compared to $1043 for 15 October.

The main thing when looking for a cheap flight to Beijing or anywhere for that matter is to try many different dates on a few of the search engines. Also give your local travel agent a call to see what they can come up with if you are looking to travel to Beijing.