I Do Not Want to Fill Every Day of the Mid-Autumn and National Day Holidays: How I Would Use the 10 Days

China’s Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays sit unusually close together in 2026.

Mid-Autumn runs from September 25 to 27. National Day runs from October 1 to 7. Only three working days sit between them, which is why the “take three days off and get thirteen days” formula has become such an obvious travel idea.

If I were planning the period again, I would do almost the opposite.

As an indie developer, I have learned that time freedom is not the same thing as having nothing to do. Products still need work. Servers still fail. Releases still need to ship. The useful freedom is that my work does not have to follow the exact same calendar as public holidays.

That means I do not have to compete for the same train, flight, highway and hotel on the same morning as everyone else.

These are not actually ten consecutive days

The official 2026 holiday calendar gives Mid-Autumn three days, September 25–27, and National Day seven days, October 1–7. September 28–30 remain working days.

The government notice also explicitly encourages combining paid leave with public holidays and using staggered travel where possible.

I like the gap.

It makes it easier to stop treating the two holidays as one giant travel project.

Mid-Autumn can be family time and a short break. National Day can carry the longer trip. They do not need to solve the same problem.

I would keep Mid-Autumn local

With only three days, I would not spend a large part of the holiday in airports, railway stations or highway traffic simply because “a holiday should be used for travel.”

One day can be for family.

One day can be a nearby hike, bike ride, long walk or somewhere that does not require an itinerary.

The third day can stay empty.

That used to feel wasteful to me. Now I think a holiday that does not leave you more tired than a normal work week has already done its job.

I hike, run and cycle often enough to notice that the most useful reset is not always a spectacular view. Sometimes it is simply a few hours without a computer, messages or the feeling that the next task is waiting.

I would work on September 28–30

For an indie developer, these three working days may be the most valuable part of the whole window.

While many people connect the two holidays, I would work.

Not because working through the gap is more disciplined, but because I do not need the next public holiday to travel again.

The best part of schedule autonomy is the ability to rearrange deep work and travel. I can work while the peak departure wave is building, then move a longer trip into a quieter period.

That is what “time freedom” means to me now.

It is not working fewer hours every day.

It is not having to compress all of life into weekends and statutory holidays.

During National Day, I would choose one region

Seven days is enough for a real trip, but I would no longer build a route that changes cities every one or two days.

My rule would be simple:

Choose one region and stay.

It can be an early-autumn destination in northern China, a city I have wanted to understand beyond one afternoon, or a smaller place with good walking and outdoor space.

Current travel-market reporting shows why. The short gap between the holidays has pushed long-distance travel demand forward. Publicly reported booking data in late August showed rising search and advance-booking interest for the Mid-Autumn and National Day period, while northern and western autumn destinations have been among the stronger long-haul themes.

The practical conclusion is not that there is a hidden destination with no people.

It is that popular places will be popular.

The controllable variables are how often you transfer and how much of each day you sacrifice to reaching the next place.

I no longer start with a “top ten destinations” list

Every Golden Week produces lists of the ten places you must visit.

I find them less useful than I used to.

Whether a place is worth visiting depends on where you start, how long you are willing to travel, who is with you, how much walking you want, how sensitive you are to weather, and whether this is your first visit.

Late September and October do bring a moving autumn-color window across China. Public travel reporting has highlighted earlier color in places such as northern Xinjiang, Arxan and parts of Northeast China, with western mountain regions becoming more relevant into October.

That information can help with timing.

Before using this route idea, I would define the safety boundary

If I turn the idea into concrete autumn windows, I would treat Badaling near Beijing, Ejina Banner in Inner Mongolia, and the Greater Khingan Range as three separate choices rather than one continuous road trip: a nearby Mid-Autumn outing, one National Day region to stay in, and a farther high-latitude trip only when the seasonal window and schedule make sense. Before each one I would recheck weather warnings, road conditions and access rules, carry enough water, warm layers, power and vehicle-energy margin for the actual setting, and cancel or turn back if roads close, weather deteriorates or fatigue makes the plan unsafe. The route can change; the safety margin should not be used up just to preserve an itinerary.

It cannot decide the trip for me.

If I genuinely want autumn color, I would choose one area and then check weather, transport and accommodation. If I simply need rest, I may choose a walkable city and stay for three or four days without chasing foliage at all.

A trip does not need one dramatic landmark to justify itself.

I do not want travel to become another project

Developers are good at turning everything into a system.

It is easy to build a spreadsheet before departure, divide every day into morning, afternoon and evening, and pre-select every route, restaurant, camera spot and train.

Then the weather changes, a scenic area limits entry, or someone in the group is tired, and the schedule suddenly feels “broken.”

I have become less interested in optimizing a trip that way.

The things I remember are often inefficient: sleeping thirty minutes longer, changing the route at the last moment, spending an afternoon somewhere without taking many photos, or leaving a block of time completely unplanned.

So if I travel during National Day, I want each day to contain deliberate blank space.

I would keep three kinds of margin

On September 23, China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism published its holiday travel reminder. The first recommendation is basic but important: check weather and transport, understand reservation and opening rules, plan routes and timing carefully, and avoid undeveloped areas without adequate safety protection.

For a peak holiday, I translate that into three margins.

Transport margin. Do not build a critical connection around best-case travel times.

Weather margin. Outdoor routes need a real cancellation option, especially in mountains, plateaus, canyons and waterside terrain.

Energy margin. After two demanding days, the third day is allowed to contain nothing.

Removing one destination can be more useful than reading ten more guides.

If my time is genuinely flexible, I may travel after October 7

This is where an indie developer’s schedule has a real advantage.

If a place is still worth visiting after October 7, why must I leave on October 1?

I can work before and during part of the public holiday, spend time with family, take a nearby walk, and move a longer journey until after the main return wave.

That freedom has a cost.

Without a company telling you when to stop, work can expand into every day. An indie developer can easily end up working through the public holiday and then working through the intended off-peak trip too.

The hard part is not being allowed to travel.

It is protecting a block of time strongly enough that work does not consume it.

My 10-day split

If I had to put the plan into a table, it would look like this:

Dates	My plan
Sep 25–27	Family, one nearby outdoor day, one blank day
Sep 28–30	Normal focused work
Oct 1–2	No rush to join the long-haul departure peak
Oct 3–7	If I travel, one region only and a slower stay
After Oct 7	Prefer the true long-distance trip here if timing and season still work

This does not look like the most efficient use of a holiday.

That is the point.

I no longer want to treat public holidays as resources that must be fully extracted.

For me, the valuable part of being an indie developer is not “having more vacation than other people.” It is being able to decide when to work and, just as importantly, when not to work.

If every trip still has to happen during Golden Week and every real rest period still has to wait for a statutory holiday, that freedom has not been used very well.

This year, I would rather travel less, transfer less and schedule less.

And leave some of the time genuinely mine.

Related field notes

• Xingyi or Weining in Autumn? Two Very Different Ways to Travel in Guizhou
• Guizhou summer escape: Guiyang, Liupanshui, Xingyi or Weining?
• Xingyi summer travel guide: Wanfenglin, Maling River Canyon and Wanfeng Lake