National Day 2010: Shanghai or Hangzhou?

[koreth]

My wife and I are going to Shanghai to see the Expo in late September, and were planning to stay in Hangzhou the last two or three days of our trip since she's never been there. As it happens, our return date is October 4, which means that if we decide to spend three full days in Hangzhou, we'll be there for National Day. Or we can spend two full days in HZ and be in Shanghai for the holiday, taking the train down that night or the next morning.

Which would you guys choose? Neither one of us has been in China on October 1 before and we're curious to check out any parades, flowery speeches by politicians, fireworks, and whatever else is going on. I assume Shanghai's festivities will be more elaborate, but especially with the Expo visitors there, we might stand a smaller chance of getting close enough to actually see anything interesting in person.

Edited April 15, 2010 at 05:40 AM by koreth

[anonymoose]

Well, Hangzhou is a big domestic tourist destination, whereas Shanghai isn't particularly (at least relative to its size), so come the national day holiday, Hangzhou will probably be packed, especially around West Lake and the other tourist centres.

So my advice would be, go to Hangzhou whilst it's relatively quiet, and then spend National Day in Shanghai, which will also be crowded, but Shanghai's always crowded, so you won't lose out on much doing it this way round.

[Brian US]

While on the subject, how is National Day normally celebrated? I figured last year was overdone due to the 60th anniversary. I was in Beijing at the time and found it very frustrating to have half of downtown shut down. The fireworks weren't as spectacular when you're 10 blocks away.

[Sweeter]

@ Brian US - There's no particular celebration on the National Day unless it runs into 5-yr, 10-yr...., 60-yr, 65-yr, etc birthday of the country. Usually people will have one-week long holidays so many people will choose to take a short trip - it's like Spring Break in US. No fireworks in most cases unless it's arranged by the government.