Changchun is a year-round city but its character changes dramatically with the seasons. Spring (April to May) brings the city back to life after a long winter — the cherry trees bloom in late April and the parks are at their most vivid. Summer (June to August) is warm and green, the best time for the parks and outdoor sites.
Autumn is arguably the best season: October brings good weather, autumn colour in Jingyuetan and Nanhu Park, and the softer light of the northeast autumn. The national holiday crowds peak in the first week of October, after which the city returns to its normal rhythm.
Winter is long and serious — temperatures regularly reach minus fifteen or colder, and minus twenty-five is not unusual in the deep cold of January and February. The city functions normally in these conditions (residents are accustomed to it and infrastructure is built for it), and the winter visit has its own character: the ski slopes at Jingyuetan, the quieter museums, the particular quality of a northern city in snow. The ice sculptures and winter festivals across northeastern China peak in January.
The worst period to visit is the transition out of winter — March and early April, when the snow is melting but spring has not yet arrived, and the city has the grey, damp, post-winter look that any northern city wears in thaw.