· PHOTOGRAPHY · SOUTHEAST ASIA · MALAYSIA ·
Is Chinese New Year a Good Time to Visit Penang, Malaysia?
Scribbled by Claire ⬩ 15 Aug 2025
Are you planning a trip to Penang during Chinese New Year? If so, you may be wondering if it’s a good time to go, what businesses are open, how busy it will be, what events are on, and if it’s actually worth the hassle. Here, we’ve talked through our two weeks spent in Penang during the celebrations, plus added loads of street photography, to help you decide!
It was the beginning of the year of the Snake (although I thought it looked a little like a dragon) and, finally, it was my year to visit Penang, Malaysia.
We actually chose to visit the island of Penang specifically for Chinese New Year. Many years back, somebody told me that it is a whole, celebratory vibe and the entire of George Town turns into a bit of a party. I have no precise memory of this exchange, but I definitely recollect descriptions of the revelry – so I booked my trip based purely on this semi-formed memory of a conversation with a presently unidentified person.
This decision, as it turned out, was an excellent one, and their information about Chinese New Year was solid.
So, for two weeks, we lived through the enormity that was Lunar New Year in Penang. It was a sensory cacophony of haphazard fireworks, metre-long joss sticks, glowing red lanterns, and twirling dragons that hand out beers; a combination of which my senses won’t be quick to forget.
We’d highly recommend visiting during this time – there are the fairy-tale lights of Kek Lok Si, animated street parties, free concerts, cultural dance shows, and colossal dedications of food. It’s all happening in Penang during Chinese New Year!
IN THIS GUIDE //
Lantern-Clad Adventures in Penang
Does Everything Shut During Chinese New Year?
When is Chinese New Year?
Is Penang Worth Visiting During Chinese New Year?
What Events are on?
Where to Stay in Penang
Is Chinese New Year Okay for Kids?
Is Chinese New Year Safe?
Is It Busy?
Kek Lok Si
Chinese New Year Photography
Where to Next?
This post may contain affiliate links. If you book through these links we may make a small commission at zero cost to you. It helps us pay for the upkeep of this blog. Thank you!
Does Everything Shut During Chinese New Year?
No, everything does not shut during Chinese New Year.
The celebration is Chinese (obviously), so there are a lot of Chinese businesses that will close for the first two to four days of the holiday (some may also be closed for Chinese New Year’s Eve). Usually they have a handwritten sign on the door saying how many days they will be closed for, so you can plan to visit later on in the week (they all seemed to shut for different durations!).
However, Penang is very multicultural and all the Indian, Malay and other nationalities are open for business as usual, so you’ll not struggle to find food, bars or hotels.
When is Chinese New Year?
Chinese New Year begins on the first day of the new moon which falls between January 21st and February 20th each year. So, this means Chinese New Year is on a different day every year.
In 2025, Chinese New Year celebrated the year of the snake on the 29th January and, in 2026, Chinese New year will celebrate the year of the horse from the 17th February.
The festivities are usually celebrated for up to 16 days, starting with Chinese New Year’s Day and finishing with the Lantern Festival.
Is Penang Worth Visiting During Chinese New Year?
Yes, Chinese New Year is a fantastic time to visit Penang. Here are a few reasons:
⬩ It’s a nice season for the weather, with lowish rainfall and not completely oppressive temperatures. We hardly saw any rain during our trip in February (it was mostly glorious sunshine) and we could almost tolerate the temperatures (we’re British and cannot cope with any heat).
⬩ There is also the genuinely enthralling Tamil festival called Thaipusam, which often coincides with Chinese New Year celebrations. We saw the set up for the processions in Penang and then attended the celebration in Kuala Lumpur’s Batu Caves. For more information, have a read of our Thaipusam Batu Caves guide (or our photography guide, if you’re a keen photography bean).
⬩ Although some establishments are shut, there are also loads of lively festivities and goings-on, which make up for a few days of the Chinese businesses being closed.
⬩ We didn’t see too much of a price hike during Chinese New Year, in fact we found it really quite affordable for all our hotels, food and scooter rental. However, we booked a few months in advance (which is not like us, at all), so maybe that is why we didn’t see any major difference.
What Events are on During Chinese New Year?
There are a number of mostly free events open to the public in Penang during Chinese New Year. The biggest of these are:
Penang Miao Hui | concentrated in the heritage streets of George Town, this festival celebrates Chinese heritage in Penang. Expect to see (and hear) firecrackers in the streets, workshops, street performances, martial arts demonstrations, sports like chingay, Chinese Dragon dances, and live musical acts.
Jade Emperor’s Birthday | held down by George Town’s jetties, this massive celebration involves a huge feast offering, musical performances, rituals, and of course the ubiquitous fireworks. This occurs on the ninth day of Chinese New Year.
Illumination at Kek Lok Si | above George Town lies this huge Buddhist temple complex (the largest in Malaysia) which is lit up every New Year with many thousands of Chinese lanterns for an entire month. There is a small charge for parking and entry.
Open Houses | a number of businesses in Penang open their doors to the general public for free so everyone can take part in the celebrations. The largest of these is hosted by the Penang Government and involves a few hours of music, cultural performances and food.
There will also be random performances by Chinese dragon dancer troupes throughout the day (and night) during Chinese New Year. You might not see them, but you’ll definitely hear them! We found one heading into a night club and could hear the sounds through the brick walls (they also gave us beers and we’re not totally sure why).
Where to Stay in PENANG
The most obvious place to stay in Penang is George Town. It has absolutely every kind of accommodation you could ask for, so it’s perfect for any traveller style.
We stayed in George Town for about half of our two weeks, then moved up to the Tangung area because it was more chill for a longer stay (during Chinese New Year!).
Our Choice in George Town – Hotel Mokozoyo ($$). This modern, minimalist, uniquely designed hotel really exceeded my expectations, with comfortable beds, Netflix, a great shower, quality aircon and free snacks. It was the small details, really, that made me love it (who doesn’t love free snacks?). The location was perfect, too. We’d recommend it for mid-range travellers who care about budget but like nice things!
For a more upscale stay, we’d recommend the Eastern & Oriental Hotel ($$$). It’s super well-rated, classically designed and on the oceanfront, while still being in central George Town. Definitely one of the most sought-after stays in the area!
If you want a proper heritage stay in George Town, we’re torn between Noordin Mews ($$$$), which looks *crazy* beautiful, with some of the best reviews I’ve ever seen, and Ren I Tang Heritage Inn ($$), which is smack bang in the middle of the action, well-priced, with a classic Penang aesthetic and a beautiful courtyard.
_
Is Chinese New Year Okay for Kids?
We don’t have kids, but I’d say that Chinese New Year would be great for children! Lots of Chinese people visit Penang during New Year with their families, so I can’t imagine that it would be a problem.
There are plenty of activities for children during the street parties, like crafts, music, games, and theatrical performances. We saw loads of Chinese families out with their very young kids – it was actually really wholesome.
If your child is sensitive to loud noises like fireworks, firecrackers, scary looking dragons and other similar imagery, or uncomfortable in large crowds, then I’d suggest preparing them in advance, taking noise cancelling head phones and putting one of those air tags on them (I’ve heard of parents doing that nowadays!).
Is Chinese New Year Safe?
Yes, we found Penang to feel exceptionally safe when we visited.
The biggest risks around Chinese New Year would be getting hit by a rogue firework or firecracker, I reckon, and that’s not exactly likely. There’s also a lot of traffic, but mostly it’s slow moving. You could also fall down an open drain at night along certain streets if you’re not careful (although this could happen any time of year).
In terms of crime, central George Town is busy until the early hours of the morning on most nights, plus there are decent street lights, so you’ll not be wandering around alone in dark alleys.
On a separate note (and I may be very wrong about this), nobody seemed to be drunk (which is a big departure from any kind of celebratory event I’ve been to in the UK or the USA). It seemed like nobody was blitzed, even at the street parties, which is nice.
Is it Very Busy During Chinese New Year?
Yes, the streets are much busier with (mostly Chinese) people visiting for the holidays. There are longer queues for many food stalls and restaurants, and popular locations like Kek Lok Si and Penang Hill have much larger queues for the funiculars and parking.
We didn’t find it to be uncomfortable, though, but we’d recommend booking your accommodation in advance and any higher-end restaurants. For recommendations for places to eat and stay, check out our three-day Penang itinerary.
During our visit, Penang Hill was a no-go because of the enormous crowds, although we could have avoided these by going early in the morning (but that was not happening with all the late nights). Kek Lok Si had chunky queues for parking, but you can mostly avoid this by getting a taxi drop-off, or riding a scooter.
We didn’t struggle for food in terms of queues, at all, but we are very flexible about where we eat and didn’t always opt for the most popular options (plus, we eat at weird times of day, like 4pm is totally fine for me for dinner!).
Apart from the evenings when the roads were shut during the official street parties in George Town, the traffic wasn’t terrible.
Transport
One thing to note is that the trains are very, very busy after Chinese New Year.
Our trains to Ipoh, and subsequently Kuala Lumpur, were the one thing we did not book in advance because we didn’t know when we wanted to leave Penang. This meant we ended up having to take the more basic (and very affordable) local commuter trains, which we didn’t mind at all, but it’s worth noting that if you want seats on the posh high-speed ones, you’ll need to book them well in advance.
We didn’t take any flights, but the prices definitely rise nearer the time, so book as far ahead as possible.
Check 12GoAsia (an English language transport aggregator we use often) for any Malaysia overland travel. It lists prices, reviews and schedules to help you book ahead for Chinese New Year!
Kek Lok Si
This is just a quick mention for Malaysia’s largest Buddhist Temple, Kek Lok Si, which lights up like a fairground on mega-steroids for the month after Chinese New Year. It’s located a very short drive outside of George Town and is easy to get to, so be sure to include it on your itinerary – it’s as festive as it gets.
The temple is really worth visiting (we actually went twice). It’s definitely one of my favourite places to photograph in Penang!
For more information about how to visit, check out our Kek Lok Si guide, and also have a look at our dedicated Chinese New Year photography post to find out more about visiting during Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year Photography
Penang is a really cool place for photography and everyone seems pretty comfortable with cameras (the Chinese people seem particularly keen on everything photo related!). Chinese New Year, in particular, is totally camera friendly and everyone is out filming and photographing the festivities.
I felt super happy everyday with my camera and it was a total vibe.
However, street photography in Penang during this time can be quite a challenging environment, not just due to the crowds, but because of constant motion and dark/light contrast (those dancing dragons are a nightmare to capture).
A Few Photography Tips
⬩ We’d recommend having a fast lens (so a wide aperture, or low f). This will make photography much, much easier since everything is dark, chaotic, and always moving! A prime 24, 35 or 50mm lens would be ideal, but obviously harder to capture the perfect frame than a zoomy lens.
⬩ Consider shooting in manual or semi-automatic modes for extra shooting flexibility (it genuinely makes all the difference).
⬩ Banding can be an issue with all the artificial lighting around in the evenings. This can be particularly problematic when videoing. You can try switching to a mechanical shutter, or adjusting the shutter speed.
⬩ Definitely take your photos in RAW format because you’ll be able to bring up the shadows in post-processing if something is under-exposed.
⬩ Don’t be afraid of upping the ISO on your camera, especially if you take RAW format. Denoising in Lightroom can really help.
⬩ Zoom is useful to take photos of anything on a stage and of street performers (we used a 70-300mm crop sensor in Penang).
⬩ Wide angle-lenses are super useful on the streets because you’re always so close to everything (we used a 16-55mm crop sensor).
⬩ It goes along with the aperture point, but don’t neglect your shutter speed because everything moves so fast all the time (so keep it above 1/125 seconds at a minimum, although I don’t do this as often as I should).
⬩ Tripods mostly won’t be useful in the evenings because there’s not much space and it’ll inconvenience a lot of people, so steady hands will have the best time!
WANT TO TAKE A BETTER TRAVEL PHOTO?
There are three parts to travel photography –
◊ Planning your trip
◊ Taking the photo
◊ Editing the end result
To get the highest quality, most sophisticated photos from your travels, you’ll need to perfect all three (plus a tiny bit of luck).
So, we’ve written a lot of country-specific guides about planning trips to various destinations, and also collated our absolute top tips for taking photos on location. We’ve also written a dedicated post on how to take the best black and white travel photography. Check them out if you’re interested!
We also write about typical editing mistakes to avoid. To complement that, we’ve collated a more intermediate user’s guide to editing travel photography. This covers more elegant, advanced and refined skills, ones that will promote your photos to the centerpiece of anybody’s wall.
–
Where to Next?
If you’re considering visiting Penang during Chinese New Year, don’t worry about places being shut, or there not being much to do. We didn’t experience this, at all, and the city of George Town was buzzing the entire time we were there.
It’s actually a lovely time to visit, since the large Chinese community of Penang are super festive and there are so many people visiting for the same purpose (this results in some crowding, but it also increases the party vibe co-efficient!).
If you are in the midst of planning a trip to Malaysia, have a look at our three-day Penang itinerary – it has food suggestions, things to do, essential places to visit and loads of photos!
Hi, thanks for visiting our blog! If our free content has been of help to you, or you’ve just enjoyed our random ramblings and musings, say thank you by buying us a coffee! It helps keep The Restless Beans blog up and running.
Thank you, Claire + Nick
