« prev next »

Public Holidays in China

by Jian Shuo Wang (@jianshuo) on December 8, 2006 under China

This is to answer Lee's question about how many public holidays there is in China.

Three Major Holidays

In China, there are three most important holidays: May Holiday (May 1 to May 7), National Holiday (October 1 to October 7), and Spring Festival (Date varies, but normally be late Jan or early Feb, and lasting for 7 days).

The public holiday is actually only 3 days for each of the three holidays, but people switched and put the previous weekend and the next weekend together to make it up to 7 continous holidays, and fixed the date to be May 1 to May 7, Oct 1 to Oct 7. For the Spring Festival, since it is the 1st day of the first month to the 7th day of the first month, and there is no fixed date.

New Years Day

Besides the 9 days, the New Year's Day is also public holiday - one day off.

Others

There are other public holidays but only for some people.

March 8th is international women's day. All women take half day off (afternoon).

May 4th is the Youth Day, and young people (middle school?) take one day off.

June 1st is the International Children's Day. Chidren take 1 day off.

So in conclusion, there is 10 public holidays per year in China.

Related Entries: China
  1. China may Bypass Lots of Things May 17, 2011
  2. Socialism vs Western Democracy October 23, 2010
  3. Photos of Hong Qiao Railway Station September 13, 2010
  4. Integrity is Hard in China August 8, 2010
  5. Back to Smallness - Fortress Besieged August 3, 2010
  6. Deposit Money for Discount - Huge $$$ June 20, 2010
  7. G60 Shanghai-Kunming National Expressway March 20, 2010
  8. My Passion to Second Tier Cities March 6, 2010
  9. I Don't Like 2010 January 7, 2010
Comments

hi, mr wang,
i'm a graduate just from the college, and my name is yekee lee. it's my pleasure to make a friends with you. as you see, my english is very poor:(. but i think i'll improve the it quickly with your help.
where are you now? in china or oversea? your blog is very good, i'll be attention.
best wishes.
yekee lee

Posted by: kee on December 8, 2006 1:41 PM

I think the Germans are World- master in hollidays. We have here:

Silvester/ Newyear 1,5 Days
Easter Friday, Sunday, Monday
Workers Day (1. of May)
Pentecost Sunday, Monday
Ascension Day
Corpus Christi
All Saints Day
National Holliday (3. Oct.)
Christmas 2,5 Days

Then we have four to six weeks work hollidays (stretchable with weekends and other hollidays)

I think, thats a little bit crazy.

Greetings: XiongShui
p.s. have a luck at this humoruos story

Posted by: XiongShui on December 8, 2006 3:29 PM

"May 4th is the Youth Day, and young people (middle school?) take one day off."

Never heard of that when i was in middle school and university. Though it is a legal holiday indeed.

Posted by: fengfan on December 8, 2006 6:17 PM

well, I didn't take the Youth Day either.

Posted by: rink on December 8, 2006 11:12 PM

Jian Shuo, I am still wondering how Shanghai being the economic centre for China can lapse 7 consecutive days 3 times a year without losing business.

Posted by: stephen on December 8, 2006 11:33 PM

oh,i wil say i am not interest in the thing you say today (yesteday?)
but i still come.

Posted by: bill on December 9, 2006 9:20 AM

Apparently you have missed some other important occasions, such as Mid-autumn festival, as well those for the Party and PLA.

Posted by: taine on December 9, 2006 4:24 PM

mid-autumn is not a statutory holiday in china although it's such an important day for chinese people.sometimes i'd rather believe that the chinese goverment officers who establish the statutory holiday policy are totaly idiots!

Posted by: gabriel on December 9, 2006 6:12 PM

Holidays in China are far less than other countries. So called Chinese are the most industrious people of world.

Posted by: DingLi on December 11, 2006 8:19 PM

My woman in China tells me there are multiple Valentine's Days there. But I suppose she could have been making that up. ;)

Posted by: Daniel on December 12, 2006 9:29 PM

May 4th, the Youth Day used to be a well known holiday. But because of its political flavor, it is intentionally disregarded and less well known now.

Posted by: xge on December 13, 2006 4:55 PM

Hi Jian Shuo, I dropped by your blog and got attracted.
Your first article posted in Sept 2002 was interesting and I tried to reach your number by dialing 114.
It seems there is no access to your number through 114. Ha ha...

Posted by: Dubhe on December 13, 2006 9:08 PM

eh...how comes u guys dunno May 4th?
well, I know my eldor cousins had a day off when I was not a "youth",when I turned out to be a youth, the "holiday" is included in the May holiday. so....

Posted by: anita on December 17, 2006 9:27 AM

talk about holiday in China. Did you guys hear the announcement from the govt on the 18th that the official holiday will be Jan 1-3, swapping the weekend 30-31 (becomes official business day). I found it unbelievable that an announcement made just 1 week before, the official must think in this country nobody would plan their holidays in advance. take my case, I booked my ticket to be returned on the 1st, I will have nothing to do for 2nd and 3rd but force to take 2 extra vacation day from work for the weekend. anyone find this outragous??

Posted by: akt on December 21, 2006 10:43 PM

akt, I had the exact same problem. Thought was totally ridiculous, though everyone else at work just took it as it is, and didn't think too much into it...
At least swapping weekends should make sense... which I can't see any for this case

Posted by: rio on February 5, 2007 5:39 PM

Are all the markets and stores closed in Shanghai from May 1-7?

Posted by: Saint on April 9, 2007 11:13 AM

liketo know more about china public holidays for easy holidays planning don't intend to crash with the chinese

Posted by: michelle on June 26, 2007 2:05 PM

I think its hilarious that the real important days (other than new year) are not even holidays! eg dragon boat festival, buddhas birthday (which are all celebrated in those places where real chinese exists, ie china towns around the world/ taiwan/ hong kong). nowadays mainland china only have fake culture holidays...a week (oct 1 et al) to celebrate the death of traditional chinese culuture...disgraceful really.

Posted by: Carl on December 5, 2007 9:30 PM

hi,see this website, i have found more information on holidays

Posted by: jenny on June 11, 2009 11:46 AM

hi,see this website, i have found more information on holidays.
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/public-holiday.htm

Posted by: jenny on June 11, 2009 11:47 AM

Dear all readers,

I see there are many good and interest comments on the above of the page so i dont know what days of the week is off in china. I would like from you readers to mentiond that for me below of my comments as i need it very urgently today.

Posted by: ahmad on September 11, 2009 10:48 PM

@ ahmad:
Saturday & Sunday.

Posted by: Adam on September 12, 2009 12:30 AM
Post a comment
Name:

Email Address: (will not show)

URL: (optional)

Comments:


It may take up to 30 seconds before the server returns a result. IP address recorded.
Remember my information?
<-- Please click POST only once
© 2001 - 2009 Jian Shuo Wang. All right reserved.