China Guide
Public holidays
January 1 and 2 New Year
January/February Spring Festival: Two weeks of festivities marking the beginning of the lunar New Year.
April 5 Qingming Festival: This festival, also referred to as Tomb Sweeping Day, is the time to visit the graves of ancestors and burn ghost money in honour of the departed.
May 1 Labour Day: Now just the main day of a week-long national holiday when everyone goes on the move.
May 4 Youth Day: Commemorating the student demonstrators in Tian'anmen Square in 1919, which gave rise to the Nationalist "May Fourth Movement". It's marked in most cities with flower displays.
June/July Dragon-boat Festival: On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, dragon-boat races are held in memory of the poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in 280 BC.
September/October Moon (Mid-Autumn) Festival: On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the Chinese celebrate the Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time of family reunion that is celebrated with fireworks and lanterns. Moon cakes, containing a rich filling of sugar, lotus-seed paste and walnut, are eaten, and plenty of spirits consumed.
October 1 National Day: An anchor for a week-long holiday when everyone has time off to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic.