China has already fixed how most of the country will work and rest in 2027. The official calendar hands out 29 days off across seven festivals, and claws back five weekend days as ordinary workdays to pay for the longest breaks.
The General Office of the State Council published the schedule on 5 November, more than seven weeks before the year begins. The State Council approved it, and it went out to every province and ministry. It sets the national holiday and adjusted-workday schedule followed by government offices and used by employers across China, including Hainan. Individual businesses and services may operate different hours.
The full line-up:
New Year’s Day: Friday 1st January to Sunday 3rd January, three days, no strings attached.
Spring Festival: Friday 5th February, Lunar New Year’s Eve, to Saturday 13th February, nine days. The price: Sunday 31st January and Sunday 14th February are workdays.
Qingming Festival, the tomb-sweeping day: Saturday 3rd April to Monday 5th April, three days, no strings.
Labour Day: Saturday 1st May to Wednesday 5th May, five days. Saturday 8th May is a workday.
Dragon Boat Festival: Wednesday 9th June, one day.
Mid-Autumn Festival: Wednesday 15th September, one day.
National Day: Friday 1st October to Thursday 7th October, seven days. Sunday 26th September and Saturday 9th October are workdays.
Two festivals get no long weekend at all. The Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival both land on Wednesdays in 2027, so each stands alone as a single day off. New Year’s Day and Qingming attach straight to weekends and need no payback either.
State media billed the 2027 Spring Festival as a return of the longest on record. The 2026 notice gave Spring Festival the same nine days. Lunar New Year’s Eve, Friday 5th February in 2027, has itself been a statutory holiday only since 1st January 2025. A November 2024 revision of the national holiday rules added it, lifting the statutory total from 11 to 13 days a year.
Schools run on education-department calendars. Hainan’s published 2026–27 school calendar starts the winter holiday on 16th January for compulsory-education schools (primary and junior secondary) and on 23rd January for upper-secondary schools. Classes resume on 22nd February, so both Spring Festival make-up workdays fall inside the school holiday.
The year’s first holiday opens on Friday 1st January. The first catch-up day lands a month later: Sunday 31st January is a working day, five days before the nine-day Spring Festival begins.
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