We all know the importance of Chinese New Year but what happens in China at Christmas time?
Since the Christian population of mainland China is only 1%, you could be forgiven for assuming that Christmas goes largely unnoticed. However, that’s not entirely the case. Although Christmas Day is not a public or religious holiday in mainland China, in Chinese cities and urban populations there are signs of celebration. Shopping centres in particular are decorated with the usual Christmas lights and trees, while banks, offices and shops will often also get into the festive spirit with decorations. On Christmas Eve, it is not uncommon for friends to get together for a small celebration, perhaps a meal together. But given that offices and businesses are open the following day, these are generally low key. Gifts are rarely exchanged except among Christian families, although this practice is gradually becoming much more popular amongst younger Chinese people.
In the travel industry, the tour operators and travel agents will be open on Christmas Day and there are no public holidays during December. Christmas is not a peak period for outbound travel, although airfares are high as the hundreds of thousands of Chinese working or studying overseas in Europe and America return home, taking advantage of the Western holiday period.
Chinese New Year is a completely different story, and the peak booking period in China is the run-up to this national day and week of festivities, traditions, and gift-sharing. The Lunar New Year will be on Monday 8th February 2016 and we will be welcoming in the Year of the Monkey with a week-long celebration. This is China’s peak travel time (along with the summer holidays and Golden Week in October).
If you were hoping to visit any travel agents for meetings or sales missions in early 2016, we recommend you wait until Chinese New Year is well out of the way. The agents will not be open to meetings in the run up to Chinese New Year as they are too busy taking bookings, and too preoccupied planning their own celebrations.
Guanxi will be running a series of sales missions in 2016. If you would like to register your interest in joining us, please contact us for details.
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“Xin Nian Kuai Le” to all of our friends this Chinese New Year!