China Discovery - Festivals - National Holidays - Brief Intro

Brief Introduction

Public festivals in China refer to the public holidays designated by the Chinese government that everyone gets to enjoy. Nobody can deprive anyone of the right to regale on the appointed days off. Public festivals can be divided into two types: festivals that citizens nationwide enjoy, and those that some citizens enjoy.

The four grand festivals - New Year's Day, Spring Festival, Labor Day, and National Day are the public festivals that people nationwide enjoy. And those that some people have are Women's Day, Youth Day, Children's Day and Army Day that are commemorative days having special meanings to the Chinese people.

Among the public festivals all the Chinese citizens enjoy, three are regarded as 'Golden Week' (Spring Festival, Labor Day, and National Day). Primarily, these three holidays are all designated with three days off. Two weekends are combined with them, thus people have seven days off for each holiday. During these three weeks most people go out and enjoy themselves in many different ways with the resultant boost to the economy, hence the nickname 'Golden Week'.

In principle, people should not work during the public festivals, but if absolutely necessary 300% salary must be paid.

Table of Chinese Public Festivals

Festival		Date	Time of Day-off
New Year's Day		Jan. 1st	1 day for everyone nationwide
Spring Festival		in Jan. or Feb.	3 days (1st, 2nd, 3rd day of the first lunar month) for everyone nationwide
Women's Day		Mar. 8th	1/2 day for women
Labor Day		May 1st	3 days for everyone nationwide
Youth Day		May 4th	1/2 day for youth over 14 years old
Children's Day		Jun. 1st	1 day for children below 13 years old
Army Day		Aug. 1st	1/2 day for active army men
National Day		Oct. 1st	3 days for everyone nationwide

Source: Travel China Guide