On the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month, Shanghai Goes Climbing
Chongyang, the Double Ninth Festival, falls on 18 October 2026, and this year Shanghai has laid on 119 ways to mark it — hill climbs, chrysanthemums, and quiet rituals of respect for the old. Here is how a visitor can step into the gentlest festival of the Shanghai autumn.
By Shanghai Welcome ·
A festival built on looking up
Chongyang, the Double Ninth Festival, lands on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month — this year 18 October. It is one of the older threads in the Chinese calendar, and its customs are gentle ones. Families climb to a high place to wish for a long, steady life. They admire chrysanthemums, drink a cup of chrysanthemum tea, and eat a little steamed cake whose name sounds like the word for 'high'. The day is also set aside to visit and honour the old, which is partly why it now carries the softer name of Senior Citizens' Festival.
What makes it travel well is its mood. There are no fireworks, no parades to chase, no ticket you must buy. It is a festival you feel by walking a little higher than usual and noticing that the whole city seems to have the same idea.
- •Double Ninth Festival, 18 October 2026 (9th day of the 9th lunar month)
- •Customs: climb high, admire chrysanthemums, eat Chongyang cake
- •A day of respect for elders, now also called Senior Citizens' Festival
Why this is a good week to be in Shanghai
The city has built the weekend around it. Across Shanghai's districts this year there are 119 Chongyang activities — exhibitions, open-air performances, markets, garden events, and hands-on sessions — with 49 of them flagged as headline programmes. Most are free and open, and most are the kind of low-key, family-run happenings that rarely appear on a tourist itinerary.
The timing is kind, too. The forecast for the weekend reads dry and mild, roughly 20 to 29°C with little chance of rain — a rare, comfortable window to be outdoors in the city. And a new green space has just opened that suits the season exactly: Shanghai's 1,000-year-old ginkgo garden in Jiading, built around the city's oldest registered tree, has welcomed its first visitors. Climbing its quiet paths beneath a golden canopy is about as Chongyang as Shanghai gets.
- •119 citywide activities, 49 of them headline programmes — mostly free
- •Dry, mild weekend weather, around 20–29°C
- •Newly opened 1,000-year ginkgo garden in Jiading for the season
Where to feel it
The obvious move is to climb. Sheshan Hill, the highest natural point in the Shanghai area, gives you a real ascent and a proper view back over the flat city — the closest thing to a pilgrimage the local landscape allows. Closer in, the classical gardens and the old lanes offer gentler heights and the kind of contemplative pause the festival is really about.
Each district has its own flavour. Huangpu is running autumn health talks on rest and temperament; Xuhui pairs a Pingtan storytelling session with Chongyang cake tasting, herbal-medicine consultations, and scented-sachet and crochet workshops; Minhang turns the day into a rice-paddy folk gathering of handmade snacks and harvest custom. On 17 October, the day before the festival, Songjiang's Sijing old town lays out a market of more than ten intangible-heritage crafts — dough figures, paper-cutting, Chinese knots, origami, weaving — a tidy, low-effort way to meet the tradition in one place.
Riverside promenades and the temple gardens are the quiet alternative: a long walk, a chrysanthemum display, and the city doing what it does best, which is carrying on without making a fuss.
- •Sheshan Hill for a real climb and a wide view of the flat city
- •Gardens, old lanes, and temple grounds for a gentler ascent
- •District programmes: health talks, Pingtan, cake tasting, heritage markets
A slower way to take it in
If you would rather not piece together districts and timings, a guided cultural day takes the friction out of it. Someone handles the routing between the old gardens, the heritage lanes, and the new riverfront culture, so the only thing you manage is the climb and the view.
A private, English-speaking guide and vehicle can fold the season's heritage side into one unhurried Shanghai loop — classical gardens, old lanes, and the riverfront fitted around your own pace. All-inclusive with admissions, transfers and bottled water, so you simply arrive and wander.
Explore Shanghai Stories: Ming Dynasty to Modern Times →Our note
Shanghai's louder seasons get the postcards. Chongyang is the opposite — a weekend when the city turns, almost in unison, toward its elders and the long view. Join it by climbing a little higher than your plan required, buying a small cake, and letting the autumn do the rest.
It is the gentlest argument the city makes for slowing down, and it costs nothing but an afternoon.
Frequently asked questions
When is Chongyang in 2026?
It falls on 18 October 2026, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month.
Is it a public holiday?
No. It is not a statutory day off, so offices and shops run as normal — but the city lays on public activities through the surrounding weekend, which is the best time for a visitor to feel it.
What do people actually do?
The core customs are climbing to a high place for health and a long life, admiring chrysanthemums, drinking chrysanthemum tea, eating Chongyang cake, and visiting elders.
Is it worth a visitor's time?
Yes, particularly if you enjoy the unhurried, domestic side of a city. Most of the 119 programmes are free and family-friendly, and they are best felt in parks, gardens, and old streets rather than at any single ticketed venue.
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