Public Holidays in China

By Jian Shuo Wang on 2006-12-08 13:01 · 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.

22 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
— kee · 2006-12-08 13:41
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
— XiongShui · 2006-12-08 15:29
"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.
— fengfan · 2006-12-08 18:17
well, I didn't take the Youth Day either.
— rink · 2006-12-08 23:12
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.
— stephen · 2006-12-08 23:33
oh,i wil say i am not interest in the thing you say today (yesteday?)

but i still come.
— bill · 2006-12-09 09:20
Apparently you have missed some other important occasions, such as Mid-autumn festival, as well those for the Party and PLA.
— taine · 2006-12-09 16:24
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!
— gabriel · 2006-12-09 18:12
Holidays in China are far less than other countries. So called Chinese are the most industrious people of world.
— DingLi · 2006-12-11 20:19
My woman in China tells me there are multiple Valentine's Days there. But I suppose she could have been making that up. ;)
— Daniel · 2006-12-12 21:29
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.
— xge · 2006-12-13 16:55
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...
— Dubhe · 2006-12-13 21:08
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....
— anita · 2006-12-17 09:27
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??
— akt · 2006-12-21 22:43
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
— rio · 2007-02-05 17:39
Are all the markets and stores closed in Shanghai from May 1-7?
— Saint · 2007-04-09 11:13
liketo know more about china public holidays for easy holidays planning don't intend to crash with the chinese
— michelle · 2007-06-26 14:05
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.
— Carl · 2007-12-05 21:30
hi,see this website, i have found more information on holidays
— jenny · 2009-06-11 11:46
hi,see this website, i have found more information on holidays.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/public-holiday.htm
— jenny · 2009-06-11 11:47
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.
— ahmad · 2009-09-11 22:48
@ ahmad:

Saturday & Sunday.
— Adam · 2009-09-12 00:30