China Public Holidays & Golden Week 2026: When NOT to Travel
Last verified: September 2026
China’s public holidays are seven annual government-mandated periods — including the 7-day National Day Golden Week (October 1–7) and Chinese New Year (late January or February) — during which approximately 3 billion domestic trips are taken, train tickets sell out weeks in advance, hotel prices increase 2–5x, and major tourist sites hit maximum capacity with multi-hour queues. According to China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the 2025 National Day–Mid-Autumn holiday — eight days that year because the two festivals merged — saw 888 million domestic trips and ¥809 billion in tourism spending, up from 765 million trips across seven days in 2024. According to China’s State Council (notice 国办发明电〔2025〕7号, November 4, 2025), the 2026 public holiday schedule designates seven official holidays with specific compensatory workday (调休) arrangements to create longer contiguous breaks. If you’re planning a China trip — or already living here — knowing the full calendar and its practical impact is the single most valuable piece of travel intelligence you can have.
The two autumn holidays: Mid-Autumn Festival runs September 25–27 and National Day Golden Week runs October 1–7, with September 28, 29 and 30 as ordinary working days in between. If you’re planning around either one, the make-up workdays are Sunday September 20 and Saturday October 10, and both are normal working days in China.
In this guide
The 7 Public Holidays in 2026
China’s State Council publishes the official holiday schedule each November for the following year. Here are the confirmed 2026 dates, with approximate travel-impact ratings:
→ New Year’s Day (元旦): January 1–3 — 3-day holiday, with Sunday January 4 converted into a make-up workday. Low travel impact; most people are back at work on January 4.
→ Spring Festival / Chinese New Year (春节): February 15–23, 2026 — 9 days, the longest Spring Festival break China has ever scheduled, paid back with make-up workdays on Saturday February 14 and Saturday February 28. Highest travel impact of the year. The surrounding 40-day Chunyun period (February 2 – March 13, 2026) recorded 9.4 billion cross-regional trips.
→ Qingming / Tomb-Sweeping Day (清明节): April 4–6 — 3-day holiday. Families visit ancestral graves; short-distance travel spikes but major cities stay operational.
→ Labour Day (劳动节): May 1–5 — 5-day holiday, with Saturday May 9 as the make-up workday. Second-largest travel peak after Golden Week. Beach destinations (Sanya, Qingdao) and nature spots (Zhangjiajie, Huangshan) are overwhelmed.
→ Dragon Boat Festival (端午节): June 19–21 — 3-day holiday. Moderate travel, mainly domestic short trips. A good time to visit if you can plan around the weekend.
→ Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节): September 25–27 — 3-day holiday. Families reunite for mooncakes and moon-viewing; moderate travel impact. Unlike 2025, Mid-Autumn does not merge with National Day this year — the two are separate, with three working days in between.
One practical consequence: the motorway toll waiver covers Spring Festival, Qingming, Labour Day and National Day only. Mid-Autumn is not on that list, so driving on September 25–27 costs the same as any ordinary day.
→ National Day / Golden Week (国庆节): October 1–7 — 7-day holiday, paid back by turning Sunday September 20 and Saturday October 10 into working days. Highest tourist-site congestion of the year. Expect roughly 800 million domestic trips in the week, extrapolating from 2025’s 888 million across eight days.
The full Chinese name of each holiday is worth memorizing — if you hear locals say “我们春节回家” (we’re going home for Spring Festival) or “国庆不出门” (I’m not leaving the house during National Day), you’ll know to stock your fridge and avoid the metro.
National Day Golden Week (October 1–7)
If there is one week of the year to avoid, it’s this one. Golden Week combines National Day (celebrating the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949) with compensatory weekend adjustments to produce a full 7 days off for the entire country simultaneously. The 2025 edition — eight days that year, because Mid-Autumn merged into it — saw 888 million domestic trips, more than twice the population of the United States traveling in a single stretch.
What this means practically:
→ Train tickets: High-speed rail tickets between major cities (Beijing–Shanghai, Shanghai–Hangzhou, Guangzhou–Shenzhen) sell out within minutes of release, 14 days before the travel date. See our train ticket guide for booking tactics.
→ Flights: Domestic flights to Sanya, Kunming, Lijiang, and Chengdu commonly run 2–4x normal prices. International outbound flights also spike as Chinese tourists travel abroad.
→ Hotels: Average Shanghai 4-star hotel rates go from ¥600/night to ¥2,000–3,500/night. Popular scenic-area hotels (West Lake Hangzhou, Lijiang old town) often sell out 60+ days in advance. Book inside that window if you can. Booking later means taking whatever nobody else has, at whatever price is left. If you’re booking late, Trip.com is the platform most foreign visitors end up using for domestic Chinese hotels — English interface, international cards accepted.
→ Tourist sites: The Forbidden City runs a daily visitor cap and hits it every day of Golden Week; tickets are released online in advance and sell out. The Great Wall at Badaling averages 3–5 hour queues.
→ Traffic: Highways around major cities jam for 200+ km on October 1 and October 7 (the start and end of the holiday). Tolls are waived for cars of seven seats or fewer for the whole of Golden Week, which worsens congestion. What counts is when you exit: if you leave the motorway before the free window ends at midnight on October 7, you pay nothing whatever time you joined.
Shanghai itself empties out during Golden Week — residents leave for home provinces or overseas travel — so if you’re already in Shanghai, this is actually a good time to explore the city. Restaurants in residential neighborhoods have availability, the metro is less crowded, and local parks are calm. Just don’t try to leave the city or visit famous tourist sites.
The 2026 wrinkle: Mid-Autumn and Golden Week are separate this year.
In 2025 the two festivals fell close enough to be merged into a single 8-day break. In 2026 they are not. Mid-Autumn runs September 25–27, then September 28, 29 and 30 are ordinary working days, then Golden Week runs October 1–7.
That three-day gap is the whole story for anyone planning around it. Take those three days as leave and you get 13 consecutive days off, September 25 through October 7. Every office worker in China can do the same arithmetic, which means those three days are not a quiet window — flights and trains on September 28–30 and on the two evenings before each holiday get booked out early, and the roads on September 30 are as bad as October 1. And one more thing before you book that leave: 13 days is longer than the 240-hour (10-day) transit exemption allows, so if transit is your only way into China, this version of the plan doesn’t work. Check your own route with our visa checker.
The flip side: if you need something done at a bank, a police station, or a visa centre, September 28–30 is your last usable window before October 8. And don’t assume the weekend of September 19–20 is free — Sunday September 20 is a working day.
Chinese New Year & Chunyun (Spring Festival)
Chinese New Year 2026 fell on February 17, with the official holiday running February 15–23 — nine days, the longest Spring Festival break the State Council has ever scheduled. The travel impact ran far longer: Chunyun (春运), the official 40-day travel period, ran February 2 to March 13, 2026. During Chunyun, Chinese migrant workers return to their hometowns and families reunite — the largest annual human migration on earth. The Ministry of Transport counted 9.4 billion cross-regional trips across those 40 days, a record, with the single busiest day falling on February 22.
Unique features of CNY travel:
→ Major cities empty out. Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou lose 30–50% of their normal population for 2 weeks. Restaurants, gyms, and small shops close for 7–14 days. Alipay food delivery becomes limited.
→ Small-town China explodes. Second-tier cities and villages see their populations double as migrants return home. If you want to experience traditional New Year atmosphere, visit a town like Pingyao, Lijiang, Langzhong, or Xiapu.
→ Train tickets vanish. Tickets on the traditional migration routes (Shanghai–Chengdu, Beijing–Harbin, Guangzhou–Wuhan) sell out within seconds of release, 14 days before the travel date. Scalping is a serious problem.
→ Lunar dates shift annually. Because Chinese New Year follows the lunar calendar, dates vary year to year: 2026 is February 17, 2027 will be February 6, 2028 will be January 26.
→ Fireworks (mostly banned in cities now). Most tier-1 cities now restrict urban fireworks. Rural areas still use them extensively on New Year’s Eve and the 5th and 15th days of the new year.
Labour Day (May 1–5)
Labour Day ran five days in 2026 (May 1–5), with Saturday May 9 converted into a workday to pay the break back. It’s the second-biggest travel peak of the year, with 295 million domestic trips in 2025. Because weather across most of China is excellent in early May (no summer heat, no winter cold), everyone wants to travel. Popular destinations — Sanya beaches, Huangshan peaks, Xinjiang, Tibet — are especially overwhelmed. If you want reliable weather and are willing to accept some crowds, the 3 days before and after Labour Day (April 28–30 and May 6–8) are significantly less crowded than the holiday itself.
Shorter Holidays (Qingming, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn)
The three 3-day holidays — Qingming (April 4–6), Dragon Boat (June 19–21), and Mid-Autumn (September 25–27) — are much more manageable. They’re too short for most Chinese travelers to go far, so domestic travel stays within 300–500 km of major cities. For foreign tourists, these are actually excellent windows: tourist sites see a moderate bump in visitors but nothing like Golden Week, and the cultural atmosphere is interesting without being overwhelming. Mid-Autumn in particular is a wonderful time to be in China — mooncake season, lantern displays, and family gatherings make the cultural texture richer.
Why 调休 (Tiáoxiū) Matters
One uniquely Chinese travel-planning concept is 调休 (tiáoxiū), or “adjusted rest.” To create longer contiguous holiday breaks from shorter statutory holidays, the Chinese government swaps adjacent weekend days with regular workdays. For example, the 3-day statutory National Day holiday becomes a 7-day Golden Week because two weekend days elsewhere on the calendar are converted into working days. In 2026 those are Sunday, September 20 and Saturday, October 10. On both of those days China is at work: banks open, government service halls open, visa application centres open, your Chinese colleagues at their desks. Neither date is adjacent to the holiday, which is exactly why foreigners miss them.
What this means for foreigners: the weekend before and after a holiday may look like a regular weekend on your calendar, but it’s actually a workday in China. Banks, government offices, and visa application centers are open; your Chinese colleagues are working. If you’re relying on a visa extension appointment or a bank document, always check the official State Council schedule at gov.cn rather than assuming weekends are off.
Best Times to Visit China
Taking all this into account, the three best windows for tourism in China are:
→ Mid-March to early April. Cherry blossoms peak, temperatures are mild, all major tourist sites are fully open and fully staffed, without holiday crowds. Avoid the first week of April (Qingming).
→ Mid-May to mid-June. After Labour Day, before summer heat and rainy season. Perfect for Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and northern China. Avoid the Dragon Boat weekend.
→ Mid-October to mid-November. After Golden Week crowds clear, autumn colors arrive, weather is crisp. Beijing is especially stunning. Xinjiang is accessible without snow until late October.
Shoulder seasons for specific destinations: Yunnan (November), Hainan (March–April), Tibet (April–October with August being peak), Harbin Ice Festival (January, which conveniently misses CNY in 2026). See our Shanghai day trips guide for weekend-scale itineraries that work year-round.
How to Survive Travel During a Holiday
If your dates are locked and you must travel during a holiday, here’s the playbook:
→ Book trains the second they release. China Railway sells tickets on a 15-day advance window that counts the release day itself, so tickets for any date go on sale 14 days earlier — tickets for October 1 are released on September 17. Release times are set per station rather than nationwide, so look up 起售时间 (release time) for your departure station in the 12306 app and set an alarm for that hour. The railway can change the window and announces changes in advance. Book through the 12306 app or Trip.com app. See our train booking guide.
→ Book hotels early. At least 30 days ahead for normal city hotels, 60+ days for popular scenic areas — West Lake, Lijiang old town and the like fill up that far out. Use our hotel booking guide for which platforms to use.
→ Avoid the first and last day of the holiday. October 1 and October 7 (plus February 15 and February 23 for CNY) are the worst days for highway congestion, train platforms, and airport queues. Travel on October 2–3 instead.
→ Skip the top 10 famous sites. Visit tier-2 destinations instead — Pingyao instead of Xi’an, Zhouzhuang instead of Suzhou, Qingdao instead of Qingyuan. The quality is comparable and the crowds are manageable.
→ Book attraction tickets through apps. Major tourist sites increasingly require advance online reservations. Download Trip.com, Klook, or Mafengwo and book entry tickets 2–7 days ahead.
→ Eat off-hours. Have lunch at 11:00 AM or 2:30 PM, dinner at 5:30 PM or 8:30 PM. Restaurants in tourist zones become unusable at peak meal times.
And a reminder: budget more money than you think. Holiday premiums affect every part of the trip — see our Shanghai cost of living guide for a baseline, then add 30–100% for holiday week pricing. If you’re unsure whether your visa situation permits a longer stay to ride out a holiday, run your country through our visa checker.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Golden Week in China 2026?
China’s National Day Golden Week in 2026 runs from October 1 to October 7 — a 7-day public holiday built from the 3-day statutory National Day holiday plus two make-up workdays, Sunday September 20 and Saturday October 10, both of which are ordinary working days in China. Roughly 800 million domestic trips are expected, making it the worst single week of the year to travel. Tickets are released 14 days before the travel date and go within minutes — book the moment they open, or avoid travel entirely.
Is Mid-Autumn Festival part of Golden Week in 2026?
No. In 2026 they are two separate holidays. Mid-Autumn runs September 25–27 and National Day Golden Week runs October 1–7, with September 28, 29 and 30 as ordinary working days in between. This is a change from 2025, when the two merged into a single 8-day break, so anyone who visited last year should re-check their dates. Taking those three working days as leave produces 13 consecutive days off, from September 25 to October 7 — which also makes September 28–30 far busier for flights and trains than a normal midweek.
Is it a bad idea to visit China during Chinese New Year?
Yes, for most foreign visitors. Chunyun (春运), the 40-day travel period around Chinese New Year, ran February 2 to March 13 in 2026 and recorded 9.4 billion cross-regional trips — the largest annual human migration on earth. Train tickets sell out minutes after release, major cities empty out as residents return to hometowns, and many restaurants and small shops close for 1–2 weeks. Tourist sites remain open but are extremely crowded with domestic travelers. If you want to see traditional festivities, smaller cities like Pingyao or Datong can be rewarding; if you want to sightsee efficiently, avoid the first week after New Year’s Eve. See our culture shock guide for what to expect socially.
What are the dates of Chinese public holidays in 2026?
China has seven official public holidays in 2026: New Year’s Day (January 1–3), Spring Festival / Chinese New Year (February 15–23, 9 days), Qingming / Tomb-Sweeping Day (April 4–6), Labour Day (May 1–5, 5 days), Dragon Boat Festival (June 19–21), Mid-Autumn Festival (September 25–27), and National Day / Golden Week (October 1–7, 7 days). Several of these use 调休 (tiáoxiū), where a weekend day elsewhere on the calendar is converted into a workday to extend the break — for National Day 2026 those are Sunday September 20 and Saturday October 10.
How much more expensive is travel during Golden Week?
During Golden Week, Shanghai and Beijing hotel prices typically rise 2–5x normal rates — a room that costs ¥600 on a regular weekday might cost ¥2,000–3,500 during the holiday. Flights to popular domestic destinations (Sanya, Lijiang, Chengdu) often double or triple. High-speed rail prices are fixed, but tickets sell out within minutes of release. Tourist site entry fees stay the same, but queue times explode — the Great Wall at Badaling averages 3–5 hour waits during Golden Week versus 30 minutes off-season.
Can I still visit China during holidays if I plan ahead?
Yes — with careful planning. Book train tickets the moment they are released, 14 days before your travel date (China Railway calls this a 15-day window because it counts the release day). Release times are set per station — look up 起售时间 in the 12306 app and set an alarm. Reserve hotels at least 30 days ahead, and 60+ days for popular scenic areas like West Lake or Lijiang old town. Avoid the “big four” tourist cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, Chengdu) during peak holidays and instead visit second-tier cities like Qingdao, Xiamen, or Dali, which see significantly fewer crowds. Use Didi instead of taxis (fewer no-shows), and pre-book tickets for major attractions through the Mafengwo or Trip.com apps — walk-ups are often sold out.
Plan smarter: Check your visa window with our visa checker before picking travel dates, review our train ticket guide for booking tactics, browse day trips from Shanghai that work in any season, and compare cost of living to budget around holiday premiums.
Last updated: September 2026. The 2026 schedule comes from the State Council General Office notice 国办发明电〔2025〕7号, published November 4, 2025; the 2027 schedule is normally published in November 2026. Tourist site capacity and pricing are subject to change; this guide is for informational purposes only. This guide contains affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
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