"When should I go to China?" is impossible to answer without asking two more questions: which part of the country, and how do you feel about crowds? China is the size of Europe. Harbin in January is minus 20 and delightful if you like ice sculptures; the same month in Hong Kong is a mild 20 degrees. Here is the honest month-by-month rundown.

March to May: the safe bet

Spring is the default recommendation for a first visit. April in Beijing and Xi'an is genuinely perfect, 15 to 25 degrees and blossom everywhere. Two cautions: early April around Qingming holiday fills domestic tourist sites, and Shanghai's plum rain season can start nudging into late May with grey drizzle.

June to August: hot, wet and busy

Summer is school-holiday season, meaning domestic crowds everywhere. Beijing regularly passes 35 degrees. This is, however, the best window for high-altitude and far-west destinations: Tibet, Qinghai, and the grasslands of Inner Mongolia are at their best exactly when the eastern cities are at their worst. Zhangjiajie in summer is green and dramatic but packed.

September to October: the sweet spot, with one landmine

My favourite window. September has stable weather and thinned crowds once school starts. Early October is the national holiday week, Golden Week, when hundreds of millions of people travel at once. Avoid 1 to 7 October for anything popular, or book hotels months ahead at inflated prices. Mid-October through November, the autumn colours in the north and the clear skies in Tibet are superb.

November to February: the quiet season

• Prices drop sharply and sites like the Forbidden City see manageable crowds, sometimes dusted with snow.
• Harbin's ice festival runs from late December and is worth bundling cold-weather gear around.
• Hong Kong, Macao and the south stay mild, 15 to 20 degrees, ideal for city walking.
• Chinese New Year: spectacular if you are in the right street, but transport is chaos for two weeks and many small restaurants close.

For a standard Beijing-Xi'an-Shanghai first trip, I would pick late April or late September without hesitation. If you want help matching dates to a route, our tours page lists itineraries by region and season, and the guides will tell you honestly when a plan needs adjusting.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.