{"id":614,"date":"2025-12-31T11:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T03:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.ipacktravel.com\/wp\/?p=614"},"modified":"2026-01-30T13:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:58:19","slug":"china-tip-china-long-public-school-holidays-avoid-them-when-travelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.ipacktravel.com\/wp\/china-tip-china-long-public-school-holidays-avoid-them-when-travelling\/","title":{"rendered":"China Tips: Why China Has Long Public & School Holidays, Avoid Them When Travelling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China’s population is around 1.4 billion people as of late 2025, making it the second most populous country in the world with about 17% of the world’s total. When public holidays take place in China, its massive population creates mass internal migration for tourism and family visits. While contributing to huge economic boosts through consumer spending, it severely overwhelmed infrastructure due to massive crowds, fully booked transport (trains, flights, etc), severe traffic jams, skyrocketing prices, and overcrowded attractions. As a result, China’s public holidays are not really good time for foreigners (and locals alike) to be travelling around the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Crowds<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When making plans to travel to China, including Hong Kong and Macau, it is best to avoid Mainland China’s holiday seasons, including school holidays. Although Hong Kong and Macau have their own sets of public holidays and school holidays, they share many traditional Chinese festivals with Mainland China, and also China’s National Day, leading to significant overlaps. Naturally, citizens from Mainland China visit Hong Kong and Macau during the holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


China’s Statutory Holidays<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has 7 public holidays per year. It used to have 11 days of statutory holidays, but starting in 2025, it is increased to 13 days annually, adding Lunar New Year’s Eve and 2nd of May (a day after Labour Day) to the official list. 

China’s public holidays comprises of two long holidays, known as “Golden Weeks”, and 5 shorter public holidays or festive periods. Three of these holidays fall on fixed dates \u2014 New Year Day (1st January), Labour Day (1st May) and National Day (1st October) \u2014 whereas the others follow the Lunar Calendar and fall on different dates every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The new statutory holidays starting 2025 are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. New Year’s Day (1 day)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve & Lunar New Year (4 days)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Tomb-Sweeping Festival (1 day)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Labour Day (2 days)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Dragon Boat Festival (1 day)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Mid-Autumn Festival (1 day)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. National Day (3 days)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    However, the public holidays may be adjusted by the Chinese government annually by swapping weekends to create continuous vacation periods. As a result, the total number of day-offs for the 13-day public holidays can add up to around 30 days annually \u2014 e.g. 28 days in 2025 and 33 days in 2026.

    China’s Golden Weeks, each lasting at least 7 consecutive days, are major travel periods centred around the Spring Festival \/ Chinese Lunar New Year (in January \/ February) and its National Day (in October) creating week-long breaks for travels, family reunions, and commerce. Officially, the Spring Festival takes up 4 statutory holidays (starting from Lunar New Year’s Eve) and National Day takes up 3 days, but the total number of day-offs are at least 14 days in total including weekends that fall within the holiday-periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The next significant break is Labour Day, which usually lasts 5 days. However, only 1st and 2nd of May are statutory holidays while the rest are adjusted to form a longer break. The remaining holidays \u2014 New Year’s Day, Tomb-Sweeping Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival \u2014 are 1 statutory holiday each but may have 1 or 3 day-offs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    All the public holidays with at least 3 day-offs are sufficient for locals to make short travels within the country, especially after throwing in additional few days of their annual leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


    Weekend Adjustments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Weekend adjustments for the public holidays work as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n