Train tickets for the three-day Tomb-Sweeping holiday went on sale March 21, but what makes this year different is that the holiday falls right alongside the spring break in many cities—creating a massive travel surge driven by families. Between April 1 and 6, Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai top the list for domestic hotel bookings, according to travel platforms such as Qunar and Tongcheng.

This year’s Tomb-Sweeping Day falls on a weekend—April 4 to 6—with no extra workdays to make up for it, which is a win for commuters. Even better, spring break has been rolled out in primary and secondary schools across the country for 2026, putting the travel season into overdrive starting April 1. According to rough statistics, dozens of cities, including Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Changzhou, Yancheng, Shaoxing, Chengdu, Panzhihua, and Leshan, are giving students a break starting April 1. Hangzhou’s districts, like Shangcheng, Gongshu, Xihu, Binjiang, Qiantang, Xiaoshan, Yuhang, Linping, Fuyang, and Lin’an, have set the spring break from April 28 to 30; Tonglu’s spring break runs from April 29 to 30 and May 6; while Chun’an and Jiande have theirs on April 2 to 3 and April 7.

Interestingly, many of these cities with spring break are major sources of outbound travelers—but they’re also drawing people in with things like free entry to scenic spots. That two-way flow is fueling a sharp rise in local hotel bookings. Data from Tongcheng Travel shows the top 10 cities as for hotel bookings for the holiday are Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chongqing, Xi’an, Chengdu, and Changsha. Hotel searches are up more than 40 percent week over week, with early flights and late arrivals driving strong demand for airport and train station hotels as well as hourly rooms. On the Qunar platform, hotel bookings in Hangzhou between April 1 and 6 are up 120 percent compared with last year.

Meanwhile, the announcement that air ticket fuel surcharges will go up on April 5 is making the combined spring break and Tomb-Sweeping window an even more attractive opportunity for low-cost long-haul travel. Many families are bringing forward long-distance trips originally planned for the Workers’ Day, with April 1 expected to see the first big spike in air travel. According to Qunar, passenger volume on April 1 could even surpass the first official day of the holiday. Plenty of travelers are getting a head start on March 31, but April 1 is shaping up to be the peak—up 530 percent year over year. The combo effect of spring break and the Tomb-Sweeping holiday is undeniable.