We tell international visitors to come in autumn, or fall if that is your word for it. The crowds here run on the Chinese school calendar. You probably do not, and in autumn that matters more than in any other season.
The mountain in question is Moganshan, in Deqing County, one of the counties of Huzhou prefecture, in Zhejiang Province, China. Hangzhou sits about 60 km to the south. Shanghai is 200 to 240 km out. The main peak, Tashan, reaches 719 to 720 metres. Search results also carry Moganshan Road, a Shanghai art district 200 km away.
The short answer
Late September and November. Keep the first week of October clear.
That week is China’s National Day holiday, one of the two Golden Weeks, and the worst week of the year to stand at a Moganshan transfer centre.
Easy advice to give, hard to take. If National Day is your only week, come anyway and book the bed first.
What is measured, and what is not
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual mean temperature | 13.3 °C |
| July and August mean | 24.1 °C |
| January mean | 1.4 °C |
| September, October and November mean | No published figure |
Temperature means, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, 1 to 5 August 2026.
No autumn mean is published for this mountain, so read the shape of the year instead. It stands at 719 to 720 metres and runs 6 to 7 °C under Shanghai and Hangzhou in summer. A year that averages 13.3 °C, peaks at 24.1 and bottoms out at 1.4 has to spend September and November somewhere mild. Moganshan weather has the figures.
Moganshan in September, October and November, week by week
Autumn does not arrive on 1 September and leave on 30 November, so here it is in the pieces you book. Everything right of the dates is our reading, not published data.
| Weeks | How it feels | Crowds | Mid range room |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 15 September | Summer, edge coming off. Humid | Falling from the July peak | Above off season |
| 16 to 30 September | Comfortable walking, first since spring | Low midweek, heavy Saturday | Easing to RMB 300 to 500 |
| 1 to 7 October | Same as the weeks either side. Only the crowd differs | Extreme. National Day | Peak, if anything is left |
| 8 to 20 October | Mild, haze thinning | Medium, heaviest at weekends | Near peak |
| 21 to 31 October | The best trade on the calendar | Medium midweek | Coming down |
| 1 to 15 November | Cool and clear. Jacket weather. First maples colouring | Low | Near RMB 300 to 500 |
| 16 to 30 November | Cold mornings, short afternoons. Maples at or near their best | Low midweek, busy at weekends during the maple festival | RMB 300 to 500 |
Nobody publishes a gate count, so the crowd column comes from holiday and weekday patterns. The room column spreads the published bands across the weeks as we expect demand to run. Both current on 5 August 2026.
The one week of October to skip
One row in that table is worse than it looks.
Over the National Day holiday in 2025, daily footfall in the village of Yucun ran 30 to 40 percent above normal.
National Day 2025 footfall in Yucun, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, 1 to 5 August 2026.
More visitors pass through Yucun than any other gateway, so that count matters. You cannot take your own vehicle inside the scenic area, so everybody going up changes at a transfer centre. There are three, at Yucun, Fatou and Houwu, and their capacity is fixed. A third more people arrive at the same doors.
Rooms follow. Occupancy averaged about 55 percent across the area in 2024, against 94 percent at the high end over the May 2024 holiday.
Golden Week dates move each year, so check yours.
The weekday split matters more now than in July
The month is the smaller of your two date choices. A Tuesday in July is still a full mountain, so the weekday saves a queue and not much more. In late October the same choice hands you a different place. That gap is an inference on our part. The pattern under it is measured: the split is severe, and weekends and holidays carry the volume. Monday is the quiet day.
Distance explains it. Moganshan is 2 to 3 hours from Shanghai by road and about 1.5 hours from Hangzhou, so it is a weekend market all year. In July that load lands on a week already full. In late October it lands on nothing. Monday to Thursday buys empty paths and rooms at the lower band. Friday to Sunday buys a shoulder season week at peak rates.
The best time to visit makes that case across the year.
Walking, and the view
Start with the colour, because it is not where most people look for it. This is a bamboo mountain. More than 92 percent of it is forest, almost all of that moso bamboo, a crop that stays green all year. The red comes from maples, more than 10,000 of them by the scenic area’s own count, standing in villa gardens, along the old roads and at the viewpoints. They turn late. The three red maple festivals so far opened on 1 November 2023, 12 November 2024 and 18 November 2025, and in 2025 the best colour arrived in December. Come in October for the leaves and you will be early. Moganshan red leaves has the dates, the trees and where they stand.
More than 10,000 red maples, Moganshan Management Bureau (莫干山管理局), quoted by Deqing News (德清新闻网), 13 November 2024, tier 2. Festival openings: China Daily website (中国日报网), 2 November 2023; Deqing News (德清新闻网), 13 November 2024; Tide News (潮新闻) via China News Service (中新网), 18 November 2025; all tier 2.
The rest of the season is walking. The paths are stone and packed earth, hard work on an August afternoon and easy on a November one. Bring tread, because both turn slick in mist. Walking and hiking in Moganshan covers the terrain.
The second thing is the view. Clear late autumn is promoted locally as a shoulder season, and visibility is why operators bother. Photographs of the Xuguang sunrise platform undersell how often summer cloud is sitting on it.
What it costs
Winter is the cheap season here, not autumn. Off season, a mid range room sits between RMB 300 and RMB 500. At peak the same room passes RMB 1,000. October holds near peak until the middle of the month, and late November sits at the bottom of the band. Between a weekend in mid October and a Tuesday in mid November that is roughly double to triple the rate for the same room. The top end starts near RMB 1,500. Where to stay has the rest.
Occupancy and room rate bands, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, 1 to 5 August 2026.
Scenic area tickets cost extra, and published prices disagree.
| Source | Autumn price |
|---|---|
| Higher published set | RMB 120 booked online, RMB 130 at the gate |
| Lower published set | RMB 80 in peak weeks, RMB 50 off season |
Plan on the dearer one, though the most recent dated window price is RMB 80. Moganshan tickets in 2026 has every figure with its source.
Daylight is the November catch
November is the best walking month here, and it hands you the fewest hours to use it. The light goes before the last bus down does, and an afternoon that would have held a walk and a long lunch holds one of them.
Arrival hits the same clock.
| Late in the day | Where it bites |
|---|---|
| Private cars | Barred from the scenic area 08:00 to 17:30; the shuttle takes you up |
| Last bus down from the top | 17:00 on the Houwu board, December 2025 |
| Last Y1 shuttle from Deqing station | 16:00. RMB 10, 30 to 40 minutes, seven a day |
| After that | A taxi, about RMB 100 |
Private cars barred 08:00 to 17:30 and the last bus down at 17:00, Tide News (潮新闻), 4 December 2025, tier 2. https://tidenews.com.cn/news.html?id=3315585
Getting here has the timetable.
The villages shut down after dinner in every season. No night market, little food late. November only makes you notice it earlier.
Where we come down
We would send a first time international visitor here in autumn, and not for a temperature we cannot quote. The walking is comfortable and the domestic calendar has moved on.
Pressed for one date, we would say the last week of October, arriving Monday. The seasons guide sets autumn against the other three.
Temperature, occupancy, footfall and room rate figures last checked 5 August 2026. Ticket prices vary by source and by season, so confirm at booking.
Last checked 2 October 2026 by Liyan Ye. Prices, timetables and entry rules on this mountain move without notice, so confirm anything you are booking around.
Photographs on this site are representative illustrations, not documentary images of the specific building, property or service described.
