Public holidays and compensation days in China 2023

Somewhat later than in previous years, the Chinese State Council published on 8 December 2022 the calendar of national public holidays applicable for the year 2023.

Public holidays include New Year, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Labour Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Moon Festival and National Day holidays.

As usual, the Spring Festival and the National Day holidays are extended to a week of continuous public holidays. As some holidays are aligned with the lunar calendar, the respective holiday varies from year to year. In 2023, the Lunar Festival falls within the National Day holidays.

It should be noted that for many public holidays, preceding or following weekend days are working days. Employers should take this into account in their planning. The reason for the existence of so-called compensation days in China is that weekend days are exchanged with days immediately adjacent to the respective public holiday. The idea behind this is to create a longer, uniform period of days off as well as to partially compensate for some of the public holidays.

Below is the official public holiday calendar along with compensation days 2023: