It is also a non-breeding passage migrant or winterer in Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei.

Outside the breeding season the Chinese egret occurs in shallow tidal estuaries, mudflats and bays, occasionally visiting rice fields and fish ponds.

[3] In South Korea the first returning Chinese egrets, almost always already in full-breeding plumage, start to arrive back in mid-April.

The autumn migration is rather more leisurely with many egrets appearing to move southward along the west coast during August and September, before departing Korea probably out through the southwest of the peninsula across the Yellow Sea.

Most were found in the northwestern Gyeonggi Bay, which also holds most of South Korea's breeding birds, but significant counts were made at several more southern sites, especially in the second survey circuit.