China Travel Planning 旅游汉语 - Climate in China

The climate in China - a market continental monsoonal climate – is typically warm and wet in spring, hot and rainy in summer, cool and dry in autumn, and cold and windy in winter. The China climate and weather information here can help you to clear about where and when to travel to China in different time.

The vast land of China makes it experience various weather and climates in different parts of China. With a marked continental monsoonal climate, most parts of China are in temperate zone, while the southern areas tropical or subtropical zone and the northern areas frigid zone.
 
Monsoon winds, caused by differences in the heat-absorbing capacity of the continent and the ocean, dominate the climate. Alternating seasonal air-mass movements and accompanying winds are moist in summer and dry in winter. The advance and retreat of the monsoons account in large degree for the timing of the rainy season and the amount of rainfall throughout the country. Tremendous differences in latitude, longitude, and altitude give rise to sharp variations in precipitation and temperature within China. Although most of the country lies in the temperate belt, its climatic patterns are complex.
 
Generally speaking, most parts of China have the distinct seasons. The geography makes the northerly winds blow from the high latitude areas so the northern parts are cold and dry in winter, while in summer, monsoons from southern coastal areas bring warm and moisture.

► In north China, such as Xinjiang (Urumqi) and Inner Mongolia (Hohhot), summer is dry and sweltering while winter is formidably cold. Sandstorms sometimes occur in April in this area, especially in the Inner Mongolia and Beijing area.

► On the Qinghai-Tibet plateau (about 4,000m above sea level), cities such as Xining, Lhasa, Shigatse, winter is long and extremely cold while summer is short and moderately warm.

► In center China (the valleys along the Yangtze River), the winter season is short and cold while summer days is long, hot and humid.

Climate in China - Guangzhou Tower
► In the south China such as Guangxi (Guilin) and Guangdong (Guangzhou and Shenzhen) Provinces, the winter days are short and comparatively comfortable. Hot and humid season is longer than other parts since April to October as usual. The rainy season runs from May to August and typhoons frequently occur in the southeast coast between July and September.
 
To sum up, the weather in northwest China is typically arid and dry, which is more like central Asia rather than eastern Asia, while winter in Tibetan Plateau can be very bitter and fierce with whipping wind and temperature in summer is changeable even within a day. it is wetter in south China and days with hot temperatures are longer, winter in the south is short and warmer.