living · 5 May 2026
Annual Leave and Public Holidays in China: How the System Works
China has 11 public holidays per year, but the system of compensatory work weekends before and after the main holidays means the calendar is more complex than it appears. This guide explains how Chinese statutory leave works.
By Jamie Wu · Editorial writer, China Visit Guide
China's public holiday calendar is governed nationally. The State Council publishes the holiday schedule for each year in advance, and employers must observe it. The calendar has its own internal logic that takes some getting used to — particularly the compensatory working weekends that appear around the major holidays.
The 11 Official Public Holiday Days
China has 11 public holiday days across 7 occasions:
- New Year's Day (元旦): 1 January — 1 day
- Spring Festival (春节, Chinese New Year): 3 days — the first three days of the lunar new year
- Qingming Festival (清明节): 1 day — the traditional tomb-sweeping festival, falls around 4–6 April
- Labour Day (劳动节): 1 day — 1 May
- Dragon Boat Festival (端午节): 1 day — the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, falls in June
- Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节): 1 day — the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, falls in September
- National Day (国庆节): 3 days — 1–3 October, marking the founding of the People's Republic in 1949
The total is 11 days. This is notably fewer than many European countries, though it compares reasonably with the United States (10 federal holidays) and is supplemented by statutory annual leave.
The Golden Week System: Adding Days by Moving Weekends
The two most significant holidays — Spring Festival and National Day — are extended into 7-day holiday blocks. This is achieved not by adding extra public holidays but by reclassifying adjacent weekends.
The mechanism: the State Council designates the Saturday and Sunday immediately before and/or after the 3-day public holiday as compensatory working days. This allows the Saturday and Sunday within the holiday period to be used as holiday, creating a 7-consecutive-day block. In exchange, workers put in weekend shifts on the dates designated as makeups.
The practical result: in the weeks surrounding Spring Festival and National Day, workers can expect to work one or both of the adjacent weekends. The specific dates are published in the State Council circular at the end of each prior year, and HR departments circulate the adjusted calendar.
For expatriates not fully tracking the Chinese calendar: these compensatory working Saturdays appear without much warning if you are not watching for them. Check the State Council schedule at the start of each year.
Labour Day and Other Minor Holidays
Since 2019, Labour Day was extended from 1 day to 3 days (then 5 days in some years) using the same adjacent-weekend-swap mechanism. The result is that May now has a mini-Golden Week of its own, smaller than October or Spring Festival but still busy for domestic travel.
Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival are single days. When they fall mid-week they are observed as single-day breaks; sometimes an adjacent weekend is swapped to create a 3-day weekend, but this varies by year.
Statutory Annual Leave
Separate from public holidays, Chinese labour law provides statutory paid annual leave based on years of continuous service:
- Under 1 year: no statutory entitlement
- 1–10 years: 5 days per year
- 10–20 years: 10 days per year
- Over 20 years: 15 days per year
Foreign workers employed by Chinese companies on Chinese contracts have the same statutory entitlements as domestic workers. International companies typically offer more annual leave than the statutory minimum as a condition of employment — 10–15 days is common for professional roles.
Unused statutory annual leave: if an employer's operational requirements prevented an employee from using leave, the employer must pay 200% of the employee's daily wage for each unused day. Leave that was available but not used at the employee's own discretion can be forfeited without compensation. The legal distinction between these two scenarios is sometimes contested.
How Expatriates Typically Manage the Holiday Calendar
Spring Festival travel: if you need to travel during Spring Festival — either internationally or domestically — plan well in advance. Train tickets open on 12306 fifteen days before departure, and popular routes sell out within hours on the day they open. For flights, fares surge in the two weeks either side of the festival. The week immediately after the festival (when migrant workers return to cities) is the worst period for train availability, often worse than the outbound peak.
National Day: many long-term expatriates treat National Day Golden Week as the preferred window for international travel, avoiding the peak domestic congestion while taking advantage of the 7-day block. Flights from major Chinese cities to nearby international destinations (Bangkok, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore) are heavily booked; book 4–6 weeks ahead.
The working weekend calendar: once you have the full-year State Council schedule, put the compensatory working Saturdays in your diary. Missing them is a terminable offence in most employment contracts and at minimum creates administrative issues with HR.
The Lunar Calendar Complication
The dates of Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival change each year relative to the Western calendar because they are set by the lunar calendar. Spring Festival falls somewhere between 21 January and 20 February. Planning annual leave more than a year ahead requires checking the published dates for the specific year in question.
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living, work, holidays, practical, expat, employment
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