Two questions hide inside this one: what date it falls on, and whether you should be in China when it does.
The rule, not a date#
China's lunar calendar is lunisolar — months follow the moon, but the year is kept in step with the seasons by inserting a leap month. The date of Spring Festival (春节, Chūnjié) follows from that:
- The lunar month containing the winter solstice is the eleventh month.
- The first month of the new year is the second lunar month after it, not counting any leap month — the one containing the solar term Rain Water (雨水, Yǔshuǐ), which itself falls around 18–21 February.
- Day one is the new moon that begins that month.
The practical consequence is a swing of about a month: the earliest possible date is 21 January, the latest 21 February. Anyone quoting you a fixed date is quoting one particular year.
What actually shuts#
The public holiday is short but the disruption is not. Expect:
- Small independent restaurants and shops closed for several days to a fortnight, because staff have gone home. This bites hardest in the places you most want to eat.
- Museums and major sights largely open, often busier than usual, since domestic visitors have the week off too.
- Prices up on flights and hotels, sharply on the days either side.
Chunyun, which is the real issue#
The travel period around the festival — 春运 (chūnyùn) — runs roughly forty days and is the largest annual movement of people on earth. Rail and air capacity is sold out well in advance, and tickets for the peak days disappear the moment booking opens.
If your trip overlaps it, book every train and flight the day the window opens, and build in slack. Turning up at a station hoping to buy a ticket is not a plan during chunyun.
Should you avoid it#
Not automatically — it depends on what your trip is for.
Avoid it if your itinerary is city-hopping by rail, if you want the small restaurants, or if you dislike crowds. A packed schedule and chunyun are a bad combination.
Go for it if you want to see the thing itself. Temple fairs, lantern displays, family-scale ritual and a city that feels completely different for a fortnight are not available at any other time of year. Base yourself in one or two places, walk more than you travel, and let the closures happen around you.
The middle path is to arrive just after the first few days, when the transport crush has passed and the lanterns are still up. The festival's fifteenth day is the Lantern Festival, which is the visual high point and comes at the quiet end.
The other date to watch#
National Day Golden Week, 1–7 October, is the other week domestic travel peaks. It is not lunar and does not move, and for a first trip it is the easier one to plan around — see the best time to visit China.
For what each festival involves and which are worth planning around, see the guide to Chinese festivals and holidays.