Where to Go for Spring Festival 2016; Beijing to Hong Kong in Eight Hours

As I wrote on Tuesday, now is the time to plan your next holiday, which means Christmas or for non-home visits, Spring Festival/Chinese New Year, which starts February 8, 2016.

That date means a couple of things. It means that unlike the occasional January 20-something Spring Festival, the date falls too late to play-fake your way through leaving after Christmas and coming back after Chinese New Year. Also, Valentine's Day occurs during that week, so if your travel plans include a significant other, factor that event into your itinerary.

Here are some ideas for places to go:

Home. It's probably more affordable to go back to Europe or North America during Spring Festival because the winter is not always so lovely. Although, if you are blessed or cursed to live near a prime ski area, prices may be higher, if Christmas is not a big thing in your family then you may wish to wing it home to somewhere where "New Year's" will have happened five weeks earlier.

Malaysia: This two-part country recovered more quickly than expected in the wake of the Malaysia Airlines MH370 crash. Although it's not as laid back as Thailand, it still has a ton of beaches, some world-class scuba diving (namely Sipadan and Mabul), rainforest, and a big mountain to climb (Mt. Kinabalu). For wilderness and fewer people, try the Borneo side of Malaysia. For Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and even the beach resort area of Langkawi, that's Peninsular Malaysia. Food's pretty good too.

Japan: It's not cheap, it's increasingly popular with Chinese travelers – and you should absolutely go there. World-class skiing in Hokkaido, not to mention even more ridiculously good (and less expensive) also in Hokkaido, and well, really nice onsens (hot baths/natural spas) where you can sit and watch the snow fall while you make yourself into a soup. That's all without mentioning Tokyo, other skiing areas like Nagano, and other lovely cities including Osaka. If you need beach and water, go, go, go. Look for Japan in the Get Out column of the November issue of the Beijinger.

We'll have more suggestions next week. But here's a better idea. Leave on the fourth day of the holiday, February 11. Traffic will be low, and airfares will start to drop. Hang in Beijing for a few days of fireworks and jiaozi, then burn a few vacation days and enjoy lower prices and less crowded destinations.

In the meantime, plans are afoot to offer high-speed train service that would take passengers from Beijing to Hong Kong in eight hours, which is currently the travel time from Beijing to Guangzhou. The tricky bit here is that no one has indicated whether that time would include border formalities or not. Otherwise, it'll be eight hours of track time and maybe another 90 minutes as a trainload of people get stamped out and in.

'Til Tuesday. One road flat safe.

More stories by this author here.

Email: stevenschwankert@thebeijinger.com
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