The usual question about Moganshan National Day week is the wrong one. Not whether the mountain fills, but which part of it does. The last time the county broke its holiday figures down, the ticketed scenic area took under four percent of Deqing’s visitors. The gate was never the bottleneck. The road up, the transfer centres and the beds were.
Moganshan (莫干山) is a bamboo mountain and a former hill station in Deqing County (德清县), Huzhou (湖州), Zhejiang, about 60 km north of Hangzhou and 200 to 240 km from Shanghai. It is not Moganshan Road in Shanghai, the M50 art district in Putuo, which owns most of the search results.
| The question | The short answer |
|---|---|
| The 2026 dates | Mid Autumn 25 to 27 September, National Day 1 to 7 October |
| Does the mountain fill | The county fills. The ticketed area is a small share of it |
| What constrains the day | The transfer centres, the road up and the rooms |
| Can you drive up | Not from 08:00 to 17:30, unless you are booked inside |
| The quietest date near it | Saturday 10 October, a working day this year |
| Whether to go | Dates fixed, yes. Dates movable, wait a week |
Two peaks in 2026, not one
The autumn splits into two blocks this year, not the single eight day run of 2025. Mid Autumn takes 25 to 27 September, three days from a Friday, and it behaves like a heavy weekend rather than like Golden Week. National Day takes 1 to 7 October. Two weekend days are worked to pay for the pair, the second of them after the holiday.
Mid Autumn 25 to 27 September and National Day 1 to 7 October, with Sunday 20 September and Saturday 10 October worked. State Council General Office (国务院办公厅), 国办发明电〔2025〕7号, 4 November 2025, tier 1. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/2025/issue_12406/202511/content_7048922.html
That second worked day is the useful part. With Saturday 10 October at work, the first ordinary weekend after the holiday is a single Sunday, and that Saturday should be quieter than any other in October. Nobody advertises it. It is in the notice.
What the last comparable holiday looked like
In 2023 the two holidays also merged, and Hangzhou Daily published the county breakdown. Deqing took 1,619,100 visitors. The Moganshan scenic area, the ticketed core with the villas and Sword Pond (剑池) in it, took just over 63,000 of them.
Deqing county received 1,619,100 visitors over the Mid Autumn and National Day holiday and RMB 1.99 billion in tourism revenue; the Moganshan scenic area received more than 63,000 visitors and RMB 4.701 million in ticket revenue, with occupancy above 90 percent at Junanli (郡安里), naked Valley (裸心谷) and Mantian (缦田). Hangzhou Daily (杭州日报), 8 October 2023, tier 2. https://news.hangzhou.com.cn/zjnews/content/2023-10/08/content_8626889.htm
Divide the revenue by the visitors and you get about RMB 75 a head, which is what an RMB 80 gate ticket looks like with concessions taken out. That arithmetic is ours, off one release and one holiday. A scenic area selling ordinary tickets at an ordinary rate to fewer than eight thousand people a day, while a million and a half others were somewhere else in the county.
A caveat. These are county figures in a municipal paper, not a bureau release, and county numbers run high. That cuts the right way: inflate the county total and the scenic area’s share of it only shrinks.
Those others were in beds, on roads and in the villages. The same report puts occupancy above 90 percent at the higher end properties, one sixty room guesthouse full from 1 to 4 October. The county has grown since: Labour Day 2026 brought 2.3 million into Deqing in five days, with no Moganshan figure beside them, and we will not invent one.
2.3 million visitors over the 2026 Labour Day holiday, up 7.76 percent, with nearly 130,000 hotel and guesthouse check ins. Deqing News (德清新闻网), 7 May 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/05/07/035205816.shtml
The crowd calendar
Built from dated sources rather than from feel.
| Date | What happens | Crowding | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 to 27 Sep | Mid Autumn, three days | High | State Council, tier 1 |
| 26 and 27 Sep | FIBA 3x3 World Tour in the county | High in the county town | Deqing News tier 2, FIBA tier 1 |
| 28 to 30 Sep | Working days between the holidays | Low to medium | State Council, tier 1 |
| 1 to 7 Oct | National Day, seven days | Extreme, worst 2 to 5 Oct | Dates State Council tier 1; peak Deqing News tier 2 |
| 6 Oct | Trail race on the mountain, 07:30 start | Trails busy from dawn | Race entry platform, tier 3 |
| 10 Oct | Saturday, worked as a weekday | Low for a Saturday | State Council, tier 1 |
| 11 to 31 Oct | Chestnut and osmanthus weekends | Medium, weekend loaded | Deqing News, tier 2 |
The 6 October row needs a word. That race is a 22.65 km training event listed on an entry platform rather than announced by the resort, with no road closure notice attached.
No events list here, on purpose. Deqing publishes its Golden Week programme about a week ahead through marketing accounts, tier 4 under our source rules. Whatever lands goes on the news page.
Where the car stops when the holiday loads
Nothing closes to visitors. What changes is where your car stops. Private vehicles change to a scenic area bus at a transfer point between 08:00 and 17:30, and have done since 30 November 2018. Staff have been reported relaxing that on a quiet weekday. Over a holiday it runs in full.
The 08:00 to 17:30 transfer window, in force since 30 November 2018, may be relaxed to 15:00 on quiet weekdays; weekends and holidays run it in full. Tide News (潮新闻), 4 December 2025, tier 2. https://tidenews.com.cn/news.html?id=3315585
Three transfer points feed the mountain, at Yucun (庾村), Fatou (筏头) and Houwu (后坞). A guest with a room inside the boundary is handled separately. The clearest dated account of how a National Day runs here is the county paper’s 2019 notice.
Guests booked inside took the booking and the registered plate to the Fatou centre for a self drive pass, bought a ticket, used the S304 both ways and parked free in Yucun, and the same notice forecast the area congested from 2 to 5 October. Deqing News (德清新闻网), 30 September 2019, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2019/09/30/031939856.shtml
Seven year old paperwork, printed as the shape of the arrangement, not this year’s rules. Nobody on this desk walks the road or rings the ticket line, and the county portal has not loaded once this month.
It amounts to a timetable. First bus up at 08:00, last bus down reported at 17:00, so nine hours at the outside, minus the queue. Our pages on the private car ban and the shuttle system carry the fares and where the sources disagree.
Arrive at 10:00 instead and you lose the morning, not the day: park at whichever transfer centre still has space, usually the one furthest out, and queue. The thing that costs a day is driving to the barrier and being turned round.
Whether to go
All of which comes down to two cases. If your dates are fixed and you have a room, go, and treat the day as a transport problem, not a sightseeing one. Reach a transfer centre before 08:00 or accept the queue. Work backwards from the 17:00 last bus down. Do not plan on driving between villages.
If your dates move, move them. The trade is a Friday night arrival and that worked Saturday, 10 October, on the hill. Sunday 11 October is an ordinary Sunday and will not be quiet. After that the month is weekend loaded and midweek is close to empty. Osmanthus (桂花) flowers from mid September to early November and chestnut picking in the town villages runs to about 15 October, so the shoulder weeks are not a consolation prize.
Osmanthus in flower at Luhuadang Park (芦花荡公园) from mid September to early November, and chestnut picking to about 15 October. Deqing News (德清新闻网), 18 and 17 September 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/18/035294234.shtml and https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/17/035293730.shtml
One honest negative. If you are coming for the hill station villas and the quiet, the first week of October gives you neither, and arriving early fixes nothing. Autumn on Moganshan sets the month out week by week, and Moganshan tickets in 2026 explains why no holiday tariff can be quoted.
On rooms the only useful advice is early. By late September the question is not which guesthouse but whether anything is left. Where to stay lists what the mountain has, by type and by village.
Last checked 23 September 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.
