When do Golden Week 2026 train tickets go on sale?

Fifteen days before travel, counting the sale day. Tickets for 1 October open on 17 September 2026; tickets for the 7 October return peak open on 23 September. Each departure station also has its own daily on-sale time, listed in the 12306 app under 出行向导 → 起售时间.

Is the Forbidden City open on Monday 5 October 2026?

Yes. The Palace Museum closes on Mondays except during statutory holidays, and the whole 1–7 October Golden Week counts as a statutory holiday period. It is open and will be extremely busy; tickets released 7 days ahead at 20:00 will sell out fast.

Can foreigners buy Golden Week train tickets with a passport?

Yes. 12306 accepts passport registration for foreign users; verify your passport as a passenger before the on-sale date. At the station you enter through manual or e-gates that read passports, and you carry the physical passport you booked with.

Do I need to reserve Tiananmen Square, and can foreigners do it?

Yes — it is free and required. Foreign visitors reserve 1–7 days ahead with a passport through the 天安门广场预约参观 mini program. A same-day booking for the Forbidden City or National Museum generally covers walking across the square, but the flag-raising ceremony needs its own reserved slot.

Is Golden Week a bad time to visit China?

It is the most crowded week of the Chinese year, but manageable if you book everything in advance, keep 2–4 October away from headline sights, and enter attractions at opening time. If your dates are flexible, late October offers similar weather with a fraction of the crowds.

What are the 2026 makeup workdays around Golden Week?

Sunday 20 September and Saturday 10 October 2026 are official workdays that bracket the holiday. This barely affects visitors, but expect normal commuter crowds on those two days and quieter-than-usual offices on 20 September.

China Golden Week October 2026: Booking Deadlines and Release Times

Short answer

China's 2026 National Day Golden Week runs Thursday 1 October to Wednesday 7 October, with makeup workdays on 20 September and 10 October. Train tickets go on sale 15 days ahead — 17 September for 1 October travel, 23 September for 7 October returns. The Forbidden City releases tickets 7 days ahead at 20:00 and sells out in minutes. Book hotels and trains first, museums second, and avoid 2–4 October for the busiest sights.

Golden Week 2026 dates, and the 13-day super window

The State Council's official 2026 holiday schedule (announced 4 November 2025) sets National Day at 1 October (Thursday) through 7 October (Wednesday) — 7 days, with two makeup workdays on Sunday 20 September and Saturday 10 October.

Mid-Autumn Festival is a separate 3-day break, 25–27 September. Take 3 days of leave on 28–30 September and you get a 13-day run from 25 September to 7 October — the longest domestic travel window of the Chinese year. That is why rail operators expect roughly 190 million passenger trips between 27 September and 8 October, with the single busiest day on 1 October.

For you as a visitor this means two peaks stacked back to back: 25–27 September (Mid-Autumn trips) and 1–7 October (Golden Week). Late September is no longer a quiet shoulder season in 2026.

Train tickets: the release calendar that matters

China Railway sells tickets 15 days in advance, counting the current day. Each station also has its own on-sale time of day (check 12306 app → 出行向导 → 起售时间). The dates to set alarms for:

Missed the on-sale moment? Use 12306's official waitlist (候补) — it fills returned tickets fairly and beats any third-party 'accelerator', which has no priority anyway.
You can register and book on 12306 with a passport. Do the registration and passenger verification before the on-sale date, not on it — see our step-by-step 12306 guide below.
Since 19 January 2026, 12306 also offers a free correction refund: cancel a mistakenly bought ticket within 30 minutes of payment and more than 4 hours before departure, at no charge, once per person per day.

On-sale date	What opens	Why it matters
16 September	Tickets for 30 September	Day-before travel; popular with people starting early
17 September	Tickets for 1 October	Golden Week day 1 — the single hottest sale of the year
23 September	Tickets for 7 October	Last holiday day; the return-trip peak
24 September	Tickets for 8 October	Post-holiday return tail

Forbidden City: the hardest ticket in China

The Palace Museum sells no same-day tickets. Tickets (including the Treasure Gallery and Clock Gallery add-ons) go on sale 7 days before the visit date, at 20:00 Beijing time, only through the official 故宫博物院 WeChat mini program — no third-party seller is authorised. Foreign visitors book with a passport and enter with the same passport.

During Golden Week the hot days (2–4 October) typically sell out within minutes of the 20:00 release. Two details foreign visitors get wrong:

It is open on Monday 5 October. The Palace Museum closes Mondays except on statutory holidays — and the whole 1–7 October period counts, so the Monday closure does not apply. Do not plan around a 'Monday closed' blog post written for normal weeks.

Tickets are one-name, one-day, one-session. Orders cannot be changed to another person, date, or morning/afternoon session — only refunded. If your plan is fluid, book the date you are surest about, and cancel by 24:00 the day before to avoid a no-show mark.

Tiananmen Square needs its own free reservation

The square uses a separate, free, real-name reservation made 1–7 days ahead through the 天安门广场预约参观 mini program (or the Beijing Tong apps); foreign visitors register with a passport. Choose a slot — flag-raising, morning, afternoon, or flag-lowering.

If you already hold a same-day booking for the Forbidden City, the National Museum, or another site in the area, that booking generally lets you cross the square during opening hours without a separate square reservation — but watching the flag-raising ceremony always requires its own reserved slot, and during National Day week the flag-raising crowd is enormous; the 1 October ceremony draws tens of thousands and requires arriving hours before dawn.

Security lines around the square are longest 1–3 October. Building in 30–60 extra minutes for checkpoints is realistic, not pessimistic.

Everything else that sells out, in order

Hotels first — not because they vanish, but because prices in central Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an multiply during the holiday. If your dates are fixed, this is the booking with the most money at stake.
High-speed rail on 1 and 7–8 October between megacities (Beijing–Shanghai, Beijing–Xi'an, Shanghai–Hangzhou). Off-peak directions and times stay available longer.
The Forbidden City (see above), followed by other headline museums that run 7-day advance windows — check each museum's own mini program for its release time; they differ.
Great Wall day trips: the Badaling cable car and the Mutianyu shuttle both queue badly mid-holiday. First buses and first trains beat the crowds by hours.
Nothing at the airport: you still need your visa-free or visa route sorted before you fly — see our visa-free country list if you have not checked your passport's route.

Crowd tactics that actually work

The worst days for headline sights are 2–4 October. If you land during the holiday, spend those days on neighbourhoods, parks, and food streets, and save museums for 1, 5, 6 or 7 October.
Morning entry beats everything: arrive at opening time, before tour groups unload mid-morning.
The reverse also works: from about 15:30, day-trippers start leaving major sights and lines at the top attractions visibly shorten.
Book in this order: hotels → trains on the exact on-sale dates above → Forbidden City and other timed museums → everything else. Do not lock the rest of an itinerary before you hold the Forbidden City ticket — dates cannot be changed.
Already in China without plans? Same-day museum tickets do not exist, but parks, temples, walls and water towns generally still sell at the gate; expect queues rather than sellouts.

Related guides

Where these matter

Official sources

Policies and booking channels change — check the official channel before you rely on it.