2019 China Official Holiday Schedule

16 January 2019

 

China’s official holiday schedule for 2019 – the year of the pig - was released in November.  If you are doing business with partners there (including customers, suppliers, distributors and your own employees), or plan to do so in the coming year, then make sure you take note of these dates and put them in your own calendar.  There are many reasons for doing so, including:

  • Knowing when they will be on shutdown, and also when they will be working extra-long weeks because of compensation weekend days
  • Avoiding peak holiday travel times, when tickets are expensive and hard to buy
  • Remembering to send seasonal greetings, and building your business friendships

As usual, the schedule features two major week-long holidays: Spring Festival (also known as Chinese New Year) and National Day.

Unusual as it may seem to those who haven’t experienced this before, China’s holiday schedule often includes additional official work days that fall on Saturdays and Sundays to compensate for long holidays. For example, the weekend of 2-3 February are official work days in 2019.

It is important to note that private companies have the right to determine their own schedules with additional days off as long as the official holidays are maintained.  Furthermore, the net number of statutory holidays can vary slightly from year to year (when additional working weekend days and “weekends in holidays” are deducted.  So it pays to assess your employees’ holiday allocation each year when the new calendar comes out, and make adjustments so that the total remains the same from year to year.

China’s official holiday schedule for 2019 is as follows:

New Year

  • 30 December – 1 January (3 days in total including the weekend)

Spring Festival

  • 4 – 10 February (7 days in total including the weekend)
  • 2-3 February (Saturday and Sunday) are official working days

Tomb Sweeping Day

  • 5 – 7 April (3 days in total including the weekend)

Labour Day

  • 1 May (1 day in total)

Dragon Boat Festival

  • 7-9 June (3 days in total including the weekend)

Mid-Autumn Festival 

  • 13 - 15 September (3 days in total including the weekend)

National Day

  • 1-7 October (7 days in total including the weekend)
  • 29 September (Sunday) and 12 October (Saturday) are official working days
 

Contact our China specialist Matthew Grandage for market enquiries, follow him on Twitter at @ChamberIntChina

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