China has seven public holidays in 2031. The two long breaks are Spring Festival, January 22 to 29, and National Day Golden Week, October 1 to 8. Chinese New Year falls on Thursday, January 23, and begins the Year of the Metal Pig 辛亥猪年. These are expected dates.
Expected
| Holiday | Festival day | Expected days off |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day元旦 Yuándàn | Wed, Jan 1 | Jan 11 day, Wednesday |
| Spring Festival (Chinese New Year)春节 Chūnjié | Thu, Jan 23 | Jan 22–298 days, Wed to Wed |
| Qingming Festival清明节 QīngmíngjiéTomb-Sweeping Day | Sat, Apr 5 | Apr 5–73 days, Sat to Mon |
| Labor Day劳动节 Láodòngjié | Thu, May 1 | May 1–55 days, Thu to Mon |
| Dragon Boat Festival端午节 Duānwǔjié | Tue, Jun 24 | Jun 22–243 days, Sun to Tue |
| Mid-Autumn Festival中秋节 Zhōngqiūjié | Wed, Oct 1 | Inside the National Day break, Oct 1–8 |
| National Day (Golden Week)国庆节 Guóqìngjié | Wed, Oct 1 | Oct 1–88 days, Wed to Wed |
These are expected dates, worked out from the lunar calendar and the holiday rules in force since 2025. The State Council publishes the official schedule, with its make-up working days 调休 tiáoxiū, around November 2030. Use these breaks to plan, and confirm before you book.
This chart shows the same dates as the table, month by month.
These are the traditional festivals, solar terms and commemorative days people mark in China. Most are not days off. A few give a half day to one group, and Guangxi, where CLI is, gives two days off for Sanyuesan.
| Date | Holiday | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wed, Jan 1 | Laba Festival腊八节 Làbājié | Traditional festival: laba porridge |
| Thu, Feb 6 | Lantern Festival元宵节 Yuánxiāojié | Traditional festival: ends the New Year season |
| Sat, Mar 8 | International Women's Day妇女节 Fùnǚjié | Half day off for women; falls on a Saturday this year |
| Wed, Mar 12 | Arbor Day植树节 Zhíshùjié | Tree-planting day |
| Fri, Mar 21 | Spring Equinox春分 Chūnfēn | Solar term |
| Tue, Mar 25 | Sanyuesan Festival三月三 Sānyuèsān | Two days off in Guangxi, where CLI is (expected Mar 25–26) |
| Sun, May 4 | Youth Day青年节 Qīngniánjié | Half day off for ages 14 to 28; falls on a Sunday this year |
| Sun, Jun 1 | Children's Day儿童节 Értóngjié | Day off for children under 14; falls on a Sunday this year |
| Sat, Jun 21 | Summer Solstice夏至 Xiàzhì | Solar term |
| Date | Holiday | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tue, Jul 1 | CPC Founding Day建党节 Jiàndǎngjié | Founding of the Communist Party of China, 1921 |
| Fri, Aug 1 | Army Day建军节 Jiànjūnjié | Half day off for active military |
| Sun, Aug 24 | Qixi Festival (Chinese Valentine's Day)七夕节 Qīxījié | Traditional festival |
| Mon, Sep 1 | Ghost Festival中元节 Zhōngyuánjié | Traditional festival |
| Wed, Sep 10 | Teachers' Day教师节 Jiàoshījié | Students thank their teachers |
| Tue, Sep 23 | Autumn Equinox秋分 Qiūfēn | Solar term; also Farmers' Harvest Festival |
| Fri, Oct 24 | Double Ninth Festival重阳节 Chóngyángjié | Traditional festival; Seniors' Day |
| Tue, Nov 11 | Singles' Day双十一 Shuāngshíyī | Shopping festival |
| Mon, Dec 22 | Winter Solstice冬至 Dōngzhì | Solar term and family festival |
Video (2:22). Why one student came back to Guilin to keep learning Chinese at CLI. The building with the lanterns is the CLI Center.
The Chinese Language Institute (CLI) is a Chinese school in Guilin, the city of karst hills and rivers in southern China. Students take one-on-one lessons with their own team of teachers and live the language outside class.
The festivals on this calendar are part of the year here. Before Spring Festival, students fold dumplings with their teachers. For the Dragon Boat Festival they wrap 粽子 zòngzi, sticky rice in bamboo leaves, and at Mid-Autumn everyone sits down to dinner together.
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China has 13 statutory days off a year, spread over seven holidays: one day for New Year's Day, four for Spring Festival (New Year's Eve and the first three days of the lunar year), one for Qingming, two for Labor Day, one each for the Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn festivals, and three for National Day.
Those days are then joined to weekends to make longer breaks. Since 2025 the rules give a Spring Festival break of eight days from New Year's Eve (in 2026 it ran nine, taking in the Sunday before a Monday Eve, and this page assumes the same for later years), seven days for National Day from October 1 (eight when the Mid-Autumn Festival falls inside it) and five days for Labor Day. The other four holidays become a three-day weekend, unless the holiday falls on a Wednesday, when only that day is off.
The 2031 dates on this page come from those rules. Applied to 2025 and 2026, they give exactly the breaks the State Council set, but a future notice can still differ by a day or so. Check the official schedule before you book travel.
New Year's Day, Labor Day and National Day follow the Western calendar. Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival follow the Chinese lunar calendar, so they move by up to a month from one year to the next. Qingming follows the solar terms, and falls on April 4 or 5.
In 2031, Chinese New Year's Eve 除夕 chúxī is Wednesday, January 22, and the first day of the Year of the Pig is January 23.
Spring Festival brings the world's largest yearly migration, the travel rush 春运 chūnyùn, which runs for about 40 days, roughly January 8 to February 16 in 2031. Train tickets home sell out within minutes. Golden Week in October is the busiest week for domestic tourism, and scenic spots such as Guilin's Li River are at their most crowded.
Shops and restaurants mostly stay open over the holidays, apart from the first days of Spring Festival, when many small businesses close while their owners go home. Government offices and banks close for the whole break.
CLI's class calendar follows the national holidays, with a few differences, and is set once the official schedule is out. If your program overlaps a closure, you can make up each missed class day at no extra cost, by extending your program, taking the hours online, or adding hours to other days. Ask CLI's admissions team for the calendar for your dates.
Chinese New Year falls on Thursday, January 23, 2031. It begins the Year of the Metal Pig. The public holiday is expected to run 8 days, from January 22 to 29.
National Day is October 1. The Golden Week break is expected to run 8 days, from October 1 to 8, and includes the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on Wednesday, October 1, the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. It falls inside the National Day break.
Not yet. The State Council usually publishes the next year's schedule in early November, so the 2031 notice is expected in November 2030. The dates on this page follow the current rules and will be updated when it is out.
CLI closes for each public holiday, but its calendar is not the same as the national one. Some national days off are class days at CLI, and the Spring Festival closure can run longer. Missed class days can be made up at no extra cost. How CLI handles holidays.
The Chinese Language Institute (CLI) is a center for Chinese language and cultural studies based in Guilin, China. Founded in 2009, CLI has hosted over 5,000 students from more than 50 countries and maintains a 4.95 out of 5.00 rating on GoOverseas. CLI's team includes Chinese language educators, program managers, and China specialists holding advanced degrees in Chinese studies, teaching Chinese as a foreign language, education, and related fields. Articles published under The CLI Team draw on the collective expertise of this group, informed by years of experience designing and delivering Chinese language immersion programs in Guilin and across China.