New Year’s Day – 01 January 2026
This is a modern holiday celebrating the beginning of a new year, similar to Western New Year’s, a time for family gatherings and celebrations. It is not as highly celebrated in China as in the West but it’s still marked with a public holiday.
Chinese New Year – 17th February 2026
This holiday, also known as the Spring Festival, is the most important of all the Chinese festival dates and is a time for family reunions, feasting, and celebrating the start of a new lunar year. 2026 will be the Year of the Horse. Customs include setting off fireworks, giving red envelopes (hongbao), and eating dumplings. This is a long holiday running from 15th – 23rd February so presents a good opportunity to add on annual leave to take a holiday overseas.
Qingming Festival – 4th-6th April 2026
This festival is centred around honouring ancestors and sweeping graves. People often visit cemeteries to pay their respects and enjoy spending some time outdoors in nature. Different regions of China honour their ancestors in different ways and at different times of the day. Find out more about the Qingming Festival traditions here.
Labour Day/Golden Week/May Holiday – 1st-5th May 2026
Labour Day itself is on 1st May 2026, but the national holiday lasts longer. Labour Day celebrates the contributions of workers, and this holiday is often used to relax and enjoy leisure activities, as well as to travel.
Dragon Boat Festival – 19th-21st June 2026
This festival is also referred to as Duanwu Festival in memory of the poet Qu Yuan. People eat zongzi (sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves), race dragon boats, and wear fragrant sachets. This is an important cultural event in China and, after Chinese New Year, is probably the best day for global tourist destinations to recognise if they want to show their respect to the heritage and customs of their Chinese visitors.
Mid-Autumn Festival – 25th-27th September 2026
A harvest festival celebrated with family reunions, moon gazing, and eating mooncakes. This holiday is a symbol of reunion, so most Chinese people like to have dinner with their families on this day, eating mooncakes and enjoying rice wine. Some cities also hold traditional lantern exhibitions. The public holiday runs for three days.
Golden Week – 1st-7th October 2026
This week celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It’s a time for national celebrations and parades. Chinese people also like to take advantage of the Golden Week holiday to travel because the national holiday period is very long. Often personal holiday days are added to extend their trips or, if the dates work, link leave back to the Mid-Autumn Festival to create a long break to travel long haul overseas.
Other dates of note
The school summer holidays are important as Chinese families love to travel but will never miss a school day to do so. The school holiday runs throughout July and August.
11/11 or ‘Singles Day’ is the 11th November, and is a key shopping day in China, a bit like the Western ‘Black Friday’. The four 1s in ’11/11′ represent singles and it’s a day for single people to treat themselves with a day of online shopping.
618 Day (18th June) was created by JD.com to celebrate its anniversary, but has been adopted nationally now by shopping giants driving sales through promotions on 618 Day.
China’s Valentine’s Day – 19th August 2026. This is not a public holiday, but it is a day of love and might be a good date to mark with couples’ promotions.
If you have found this list useful, you can read more about China’s shopping festivals here.