Midnight Firecrackers on the Sixth of February
At midnight on February 6, 2027, Beijing does not ease into the new year — it detonates into it. Firecrackers crackle through the hutong lanes and up between the apartment towers, the smoke settling over courtyard walls and parked scooters while red lanterns still burn from the night before. By morning the streets are swept, the air smells faintly of gunpowder, and everyone you pass is wearing something new. This is New Year's Day of the lunar calendar, and in Beijing the celebration is not a single night but a season: it runs sixteen days, from New Year's Eve on February 5 to the Lantern Festival on February 20, with preparations beginning roughly half a month earlier.
If you plan your trip around the lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian one, you arrive in a city that has been shopping, cleaning and cooking for weeks — and you get to join in.
Walk the Temple Fairs, Beijing's Signature New Year Ritual
Temple fairs are the main venue for traditional activities in Beijing. They are held in the city's parks and temple grounds from the first day of the lunar year straight through to the Lantern Festival, which in 2027 means February 6 to February 20. Parks and temples are, by general consensus, the best places in the city for festive celebration.
- Expect the classic fair formula: stalls selling New Year decorations, snacks, toys and fireworks, with folk performances running through the day.
- Lion and dragon dances are part of the New Year repertoire — traditionally more prominent in Hong Kong and Macau, but a fixture of Chinese New Year celebration generally, so watch for them at fair stages.
- Go early in the festival window if you want the full bustle; the fairs run the entire sixteen days, so you have room to pick your day.
Pair a fair with a walk through the surrounding streets. The fairs sit inside park and temple grounds, which means you get the crowd, the incense, the food smoke and the bare winter trees in one loop.
Shop the New Year Markets Before the Fifth
Beijing's New Year shopping runs January 30 to February 5 — the week when street markets fill with food, decorations, clothes and fireworks. This is the window to buy spring couplets, paper cuttings and New Year paintings, the same red-and-gold paper goods you will see hung on doorways across the city on New Year's Eve. Come with cash and an appetite; the markets are as much about eating as buying.
- Laba Festival falls on January 26, ahead of the main shopping week. It is marked with Laba porridge, Laba tofu and Laba noodles — a good reason to arrive in Beijing in the last week of January.
- Little Year follows on January 30–31, when households pray to the stove god and begin their preparations. House-cleaning — "sweeping away the dust" — starts January 31.
- If you want to see the city at its most purposeful, this is it: everyone is provisioning, and the markets are where they do it.
Eat What the City Eats on New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is February 5, and in Beijing — north of the Yangtze — the table centres on dumplings. The reunion dinner is the anchor of the whole festival, and the dishes are chosen for their symbolism as much as their flavour: fish, dumplings, nian gao (sticky rice cake) and spring rolls all carry meaning. In the south of China, spring rolls or sticky rice cake take the place of dumplings; in Beijing, expect dumplings to lead.
- Book a restaurant table well ahead for the evening of February 5, or find a hotel or guesthouse serving a reunion-style menu.
- If you are invited into a home, expect ancestor offerings before the meal, red envelopes for the children afterwards, and a television tuned to the CCTV New Year Gala, which runs from 8pm to midnight.
- Staying up late — shousui — is part of the custom. The fireworks at midnight are the reward.
New Year's Day Itself, and the Days That Follow
February 6 opens with firecrackers and fireworks at midnight, new clothes in the morning, and "gongxi" greetings exchanged in the street. The younger generation visits elders; WeChat red envelopes and digital cards now travel alongside the paper ones. On February 7, married daughters visit their parents and sacrifices are made to the God of Wealth. Days three through seven, February 8–12, are for visiting relatives — and note that no house-sweeping is done in the first two days.
On February 13, the eighth day, most businesses reopen. Eight is the luckiest number in Chinese numerology, and the city visibly shifts gear. The festival then runs on to the Lantern Festival on February 20, when lanterns are released into the sky and onto water — the traditional close of Spring Festival and a fitting last night in Beijing.
One note for 2027: it is a Year of the Goat, so expect goat imagery worked into the decorations and fair merchandise you will see around the city.
Timing Your Trip Around the Festival
Arrive in the last days of January to catch Laba on January 26 and the market build-up from January 30, or land by February 4 if you want to shop, eat and sleep before the Eve. Stay through February 20 and you close the trip at the Lantern Festival. Beijing's winter will be cold and the streets crowded, but that is the point: the temple fairs, the markets and the reunion tables are all running at once, and the city is at its most social. Start with your flights and a place to sleep near a park or temple, block out February 5 and 6 as the fixed points, and let the sixteen days fill in around them.