Short answer
Mainland China has seven statutory public holidays, and the State Council publishes next year's exact dates each autumn — the 2026 notice was issued on 4 November 2025. Two of the seven are week-long breaks: Spring Festival in winter and National Day on 1 October. Those two are the ones that reshape travel across the country.
"Public holiday" does not mean "closed." Banks and government offices shut, but attractions, restaurants, shops, trains, metros and taxis all run — and run far busier. Hotel rates near landmarks climb, and passport-linked attraction tickets can sell out days ahead.
If your dates are flexible, treat the two long breaks as periods to plan around rather than avoid entirely. The days immediately before and after each one are often among the quietest of the year, and the atmosphere during a festival is genuinely worth seeing.
The 2026 holiday calendar
These dates come from the State Council's official notice for 2026. Note the column on the right — the impact on travellers is not proportional to the number of days off.
| Holiday | 2026 dates | Days | What it is | Travel impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | Jan 1–3 | 3 | Gregorian new year | Light; domestic short trips |
| Spring Festival | Feb 15–23 | 9 | Lunar new year — the big one | Severe across the whole country |
| Qingming | Apr 4–6 | 3 | Tomb-Sweeping Day | Moderate; family travel, some closures |
| Labour Day | May 1–5 | 5 | May Day | Heavy at major sights |
| Dragon Boat | Jun 19–21 | 3 | River-racing festival | Moderate; local river events |
| Mid-Autumn | Sep 25–27 | 3 | Moon festival, family reunions | Moderate; in 2026 it does not merge with National Day |
| National Day | Oct 1–7 | 7 | Founding of the PRC — "Golden Week" | Severe at every flagship sight |
The two week-long breaks
Everything else in the Chinese travel year is measured against these two. Both turn a normal week into the largest movement of people on the planet.
Spring Festival (春节, Chūnjié)
Also called Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year, this is the family holiday. The date moves with the lunar calendar — it falls somewhere between late January and late February, and the day itself was 17 February in 2026, the Year of the Horse. The next one is 6 February 2027.
The official break is only part of the story. Around it sits chunyun (春运), the Spring Festival travel rush: a roughly 40-day season of mass migration that runs on either side of the holiday week. In 2026 chunyun ran from 2 February to 13 March, and Chinese railways alone carried in the region of 540 million passenger journeys across it, with total trips by all modes of transport in the billions.
What that means for you: trains on the main corridors sell out weeks ahead and ticket releases are contested. The upside is that big cities get quieter during the holiday week itself, Beijing and Shanghai are noticeably calmer than usual, though some family-run restaurants close.
National Day and Golden Week (国庆节)
1 October marks the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, and the holiday runs a fixed seven days from 1 October every year. Because it is fixed, it is entirely predictable, and the whole country uses the same seven days.
The scale is hard to picture. Over the comparable 2025 break (which was extended to eight days because Mid-Autumn overlapped), the Ministry of Culture and Tourism counted 888 million domestic trips and around 809 billion yuan in domestic tourism spending. On 1 October 2025 the national railway network carried 23.13 million passengers in a single day, its highest single-day total on record.
In 2026 Mid-Autumn falls separately on 25–27 September, so National Day is a clean seven days: Thursday 1 October to Wednesday 7 October.
The five smaller holidays
These matter less for trip planning but are worth knowing, because a three-day break still fills hotels in nearby cities.
- Qingming (清明节), Tomb-Sweeping Day. Families visit graves and the mood is quietly commemorative rather than festive. Expect extra traffic on roads out of cities, and some smaller businesses shut for the day itself.
- Labour Day (劳动节), a five-day break in 2026, and the second-busiest travel window of the year after National Day. Flagship sights hit their daily visitor caps.
- Dragon Boat Festival (端午节), dragon-boat races on rivers and lakes, and sticky rice dumplings (zongzi) sold everywhere. If a race is happening near you, it is worth going.
- Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节), the moon festival. Mooncakes appear in shops for weeks beforehand; families gather for dinner and to look at the full moon. City parks and lakesides get busy in the evening.
- New Year's Day (元旦), a low-key three-day break with countdown events in the big cities.
Make-up workdays, explained
This is the part visitors consistently miss. To create a longer continuous break, the government converts some nearby weekends into working days. Those are called adjusted working days, and they are published alongside the holiday dates.
For 2026 they include 4 January (Sunday), 14 and 28 February (Saturdays), 9 May, 20 September (Sunday) and 10 October (Saturday). In practice a weekend that looks free is a working day: offices are staffed and commuter traffic looks like a weekday.
What closes and what stays open
The practical rule: commerce keeps running, administration stops. Tourism in China is a holiday business, and attractions, hotels, restaurants and transport all operate through every public holiday, usually with extended hours and far more visitors.
| During a public holiday | Status | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Attractions, museums, parks | Open | Busier, often with timed entry and daily caps that fill in advance |
| Restaurants, shops, malls | Open | Longer queues; small family-run places may close for Spring Festival |
| Trains, flights, metros, taxis | Running | Extra services added, but the popular departures sell out early |
| Banks and government offices | Closed | Do any paperwork outside the holiday window |
| Museums with hard caps | Open, capped | Getting a reservation is the hard part; inside is actually manageable |
| Some embassies and consulates | Often closed | Check your own embassy's notice before the holiday |
One exception worth remembering: the Palace Museum in Beijing closes every Monday, except on public holidays, and it is shut all day on Lunar New Year's Eve.
If you are travelling during a holiday week
- Book trains and flights the moment your dates are fixedOn the main corridors, holiday-week departures can go within days of release. Use the 12306 waitlist if your first choice is gone.
- Reserve capped attractions days ahead, not on the daySights like the Forbidden City and the Badaling Great Wall run real-name, passport-linked reservations with daily limits and no same-day online sales.
- Front-load the sightseeingThe first two or three days of a break carry the heaviest outbound travel and the biggest crowds at flagship sights; the back half thins out as people head home.
- Start at opening, not at tenCoach groups typically arrive mid-morning and the worst window at popular sights runs through the middle of the day. The first hour is a different experience.
- Go to the second-tier versionQuieter sections of the Great Wall, smaller museums, and cities without a must-see headline sight absorb the same holiday with far less crush.
Frequently asked questions
When is Chinese New Year in 2026 and 2027?
Chinese New Year's Day fell on 17 February 2026 (Year of the Horse), with the official holiday running 15–23 February. The next one is 6 February 2027. The date moves every year because it follows the lunar calendar, so check the official notice rather than assuming.
Are shops and restaurants open during Chinese New Year?
In major cities, largely yes, malls, chain restaurants, hotels and attractions stay open, and some run special holiday hours. The closures are at small, family-run businesses whose owners have gone home, so do not assume your favourite neighbourhood noodle shop will be trading.
Is Golden Week a bad time to visit China?
It is a busy time, not an impossible one. Flagship sights hit their daily caps, transport sells out early and hotel prices rise, but reservation caps keep the worst crowding bounded and the atmosphere is genuinely festive. If you can shift to mid-October instead, the weather and the crowds are both better.
What is chunyun?
Chunyun is the Spring Festival travel rush, a roughly 40-day season around Chinese New Year when hundreds of millions of people travel home. In 2026 it ran from 2 February to 13 March. Train tickets are hardest to get at the start and end of that window.
Do banks close on Chinese public holidays?
Yes. Banks and government offices close for the full holiday, including the extended break. Plan any paperwork, visa extensions, account business, official documents, for a normal working day outside the holiday window.
What is a make-up workday?
It is a weekend day the government designates as a working day, used to fund a longer continuous holiday. In 2026 they include 4 January, 14 and 28 February, 9 May, 20 September and 10 October. Offices are staffed on those dates.
Do I need to book attractions in advance on holidays?
Yes, and more than usual. China's marquee sights use real-name reservations with daily visitor caps and no same-day online sales. On holiday dates those allocations can fill days ahead, so book as soon as your dates are fixed.
Related reading
Holiday dates follow the State Council General Office notice on 2026 public holiday arrangements, issued 4 November 2025. Crowd and spending figures come from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and China State Railway Group as reported by Xinhua and other outlets. Holiday arrangements are published annually and can be adjusted, confirm dates on an official government or railway channel before you rely on them.