Partner
Attorney at Law (Germany)
Public holidays and compensation days in China 2026
Write to us without obligation:
Get in touch now
On 4 October 2025, China's State Council released the public holiday calendar for 2026. Official holidays in China include New Year, the Spring Festival / Chinese New Year, the Qingming Festival, Labor Day, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day. Traditionally, the Spring Festival and National Day holidays are extended to form a week-long holiday period. As some public holidays are based on the lunar calendar, their dates vary from year to year.
As partial compensation for longer holiday periods, several weekend days have been designated as working days. Companies can also, at their own discretion, choose to make such compensation days non-working days. Businesses and other organizations are also encouraged to combine public holidays with paid annual leave to create longer breaks, enabling staggered travel arrangements.
Employees who are required to work on public holidays are entitled to 300% of their usual salary for these days. Conversely, there is no entitlement to overtime pay or any other form of compensation during the designated compensatory working days.
The public holidays and compensation days for 2026 are as follows
| Holiday | Date | Duration | Compensatory Workday |
| New Year | January 1-3 | three Days | January 4 |
| Spring Festival/Chinese New Year | February 15-23 | nine Days | February 14 & February 28 |
| Qingming Festival | April 4-6 | three Days | – |
| Labor Day | May 1-5 | five Days | May 9 |
| Dragon Boat Festival | June 19-21 | three Days | – |
| Moon Festival/Mid-Autumn Festival | September 25-27 | three Days | – |
| National Day | October 1-7 | seven Days | September 20 & October 10 |