Your quick reference guide to the national holidays in China.
| Festival Name | Date | Brief Introduction | Duration | Custom |
| New Year’s Day | Jan 1st to 3rd | A modern holiday celebrating the beginning of a new year, similar to Western New Year’s. | 3 days | A time for family gatherings and celebrations. |
| Chinese New Year | Late January or Mid-Feburary | The most important traditional Chinese holiday, also known as Chinese New Year. It’s a time for family reunions, feasting, and celebrating the start of a new lunar year. | 7 days | Customs include setting off fireworks, giving red envelopes (hongbao), and eating dumplings. |
| Qingming Festival | April 4th to 6th | A day for honoring ancestors and sweeping graves. People often visit cemeteries to pay their respects and enjoy outings in nature. | 3 days | People visit tombs to remember departed relatives and take short trips around the city. |
| Labor Day | May 1st to 5th | Celebrates the contributions of workers. It’s often a time for people to relax and enjoy leisure activities. | 5 days | Good opportunity to travel or enjoy leisure activities. |
| Dragon Boat Festival | Around early June | Also called Duanwu Festival in memory of the poet Qu Yuan. | 3 days | People eat zongzi (sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves), race dragon boats, and wear fragrant sachets. |
| Mid-Autumn Festival | Around Mid-September | A harvest festival celebrated with family reunions, moon gazing, and eating mooncakes. | 3 days | Mid-Autumn Festival is a symbol of reunion. Most Chinese people like to have dinner with their families on this day, eating moon cakes, drinking rice wine and enjoying the moon. Some cities also hold traditional lantern exhibitions |
| National Holiiday | Oct 1st to 7th | Also called Golden Week Holiday. Celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It’s a time for national celebrations and parades. | 7 days | Chinese people like to take advantage of the Golden Week holiday to travel abroad because the national holiday period is very long. Often personal holiday days are added to create a longer trip. |