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Holidays in China


Holidays in China

China is a huge country with endless and affordable travel opportunities. During holidays, however, millions of migrant workers return home and millions of other Chinese travel within the country (but many in the service sector stay behind, enjoying extra pay). Travelers may want to seriously consider scheduling to avoid being on the road or air during the major holidays. At the very least, travel should be planned well in advance. Every mode of transportation is crowded; tickets of any kind are hard to come by, so it may be necessary to book well in advance (especially for those traveling from remote western China to the east coast or in the opposite direction). Train and bus tickets are usually quite easy to buy in China (during the non-holiday season), but difficulties arising from crowded conditions at these times cannot be overstated. Travelers who are stranded at these times, unable to buy tickets, can sometimes manage to get airplane tickets, which tend to sell out more slowly because of the higher but still affordable (by western standards) prices. For the most comfortable mode of transportation, air travel is the obvious choice. There is an emerging ultra-modern bullet train network which is also very nice, but you may still have to deal with insanely overcrowded, smokefilled, cold, loud and disorganized train depots to get onboard. The spring festival (Chinese New Year) is the largest annual migration of people on earth. China has five major annual holidays:
  • National Day (国庆节 guóqìngjié) - 1 October
  • Chinese New Year or Spring Festival (春节 chūnjié) - late January/mid-February
  • Labor Day or May Day (劳动节 láodòngjié) - 1 May
  • Dragon Boat Festival (端午节 duānwǔjié) - 5th day of the 5th lunar month, usually May-June (16 June in 2010). Boat races and eating zongzi (粽子, steamed pouches of sticky rice) are a traditional parts of the celebration.
  • Mid-Autumn Day (中秋节 zhōngqiūjié)- 15th day of the 8th lunar month, usually October (22 Sep in 2010). Also called the Moon Cake Festival after its signature treat, moon cakes (月饼 yuèbǐng). People meet outside, putting food on tables and looking up at the full harvest moon while talking about life.
  • These are not one-day holidays; nearly all workers get at least a week for Chinese New Year, some get two or three, and students get four to six weeks. For Labor Day and National Day, a week is typical. The Chinese New Year is especially busy. Not only is it the longest holiday, it is also a traditional time to visit family, much as Christmas is in the West, and the entire country is pretty much shut down during the period. More or less all the university students (twenty-odd million of them!) go home, and more or less all the migrant workers who have left their farms and villages for better pay in the cities go home. This is often the only chance they have. Everyone wants to go home, and China has a lot of "everyone"! Around the Chinese New Year, many stores and other businesses will close for several days, a week, or even longer, so unless you have close friends or relatives in China, it is not ideal to visit during this period. Also, during early July millions of university students go home and in late August they return to school, jamming transportation options especially between the east coast and the western regions of Sichuan, Gansu, Tibet, and Xinjiang. A complete list of Chinese festivals would be very long since many areas or ethnic groups have their own local ones. See listings for individual towns for details. Here is a list of some of the nationally important festivals not mentioned above:
  • Lantern Festival (元宵节 yuánxiāojié or 上元节 shàngyuánjié) - 15th day of the 1st lunar month, just after Chinese New Year, usually in February or March. In some cities, such as Quanzhou, this is a big festival with elaborate lanterns all over town.
  • Tomb Sweeping Day or Qingming Festival (清明节 qīngmíngjié) - Around April 4-6, cemeteries are crowded with people who go to sweep the tombs of their ancestors and offer sacrifices. Traffic on the way to the cemeteries can be very heavy.
  • Double Seventh Festival (七夕 qīxī) - 7th day of the 7th lunar month, usually August, is a festival of romance, sort of a Chinese Valentine's Day.
  • Double Ninth Festival or Chongyang Festival (重阳节 chóngyángjié) - 9th day of the 9th lunar month, usually in October.
  • Winter Solstice Festival (冬至 dōngzhì) - December 22 or 23.
  • In addition to these, some Western festivals are noticeable, at least in major cities. Around Christmas, one hears carols ? mostly English, a few in Latin, plus Chinese versions of "Jingle Bells", "Amazing Grace", and for some reason "Oh Susana". Some stores are decorated and one sees many shop assistants in red and white elf hats. For Valentine's Day, many restaurants offer special meals.

    The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about China

    Chinese New Year Dates

    • 2010 - 14 February
    • 2011 - 3 February
    • 2012 - 23 January

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    China Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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