Chinese Holidays And Their Impact| 4 min read

There are two main types of holidays in China: Official and Traditional Holidays. Explanations of these can be found in detail in this article. There are some aspects of Chinese culture that set their holidays apart and others that put them almost parallel to celebrations elsewhere in the world.

One component of the Chinese culture is that prior to taking a holiday, such as the Chinese New Year, employees are generally required to come into work on Saturday and sometimes Sunday, to make up for some of the time off. In many other parts of the world, this is strange and can come as a huge surprise to those new to the Chinese working world.

Teachers at international schools will sometimes work a few days into the holiday. China obligates teachers to be “in the school building” for a certain amount of days a year, with or without students, which can only be obtained by working even when students are not in school. Despite these extra days of work, people in China never fail to have a joyous and loud time during the days off. With the copious amounts of fireworks on the most common holidays, many other country’s celebrations are put to shame.

There are a few holidays that either shut China down or slow the cities down to a near stand still. The Chinese New Year Festival, coming during the ten-day interval between January and February, is the holiday that affects China the most. Throughout the second half of January fireworks can be heard at all times of the day, and on the evening of new years, they can be heard continually for hours.

During this holiday, workers get the most time off of work: about a week, give or take a few days. Throughout this week fewer and fewer businesses are open until the once busy streets resemble a ghost town. It can be expected that doing any business while this celebration is underway is not likely, thus it is advised to avoid the end of January and beginning of February.

Similar to the New Year Festival, during Zhong Qiu Jie (中秋节) – the Mid-Autumn Festival, big cities, like Beijing and Shanghai slow down considerably. Very few people work, but China does not stop completely. It reflects the way many Western countries look during Thanksgiving. If business matters spill over into the holiday time, it is more likely that someone will be able to see it through during the Mid-Autumn Festival than during New Years, but if you don’t make appointments in advance, no one will be in the office.

Chinese Holidays