Lunar New Year, the country’s biggest festival, will now be extended by an extra day. -Photo: Xinhua
BEIJING: China announced on Tuesday that two days will be added to the public holiday calendar next year, taking the total to 13.
The move does not create new holidays but extends two existing ones, including Lunar New Year, the country’s biggest festival.
As of next year, Spring Festival will be extended from three days to four with the addition of Lunar New Year’s Eve (Chinese New Year).
The traditional Labour Day holiday on May 1 will also be extended with the addition of the following day.
The Chinese authorities have typically banked on extended breaks as a way of boosting consumer spending and this is a particular concern at present amid faltering growth and a strategy of boosting domestic consumption to help the economy.
Apart from public holidays, Chinese workers are typically given between five to 15 days’ annual leave, which some workers take after major public holidays such as Lunar New Year or National Day in October to extend their time off.
Although this is a common practice in many countries, China also has a particular system known as tiaoxiu, or “holiday swap”, which adds regular days off – for example weekends – to the public holiday period to extend the break.
Tourists visit the ancient city of Tianshui in Qinzhou District of Tianshui City, northwest China's Gansu Province, May 1, 2024. Traffics have surged at tourist attractions throughout the country during the 5-day May Day holiday beginning on May 1. Photo: Xinhua
Meanwhile, China Daily reported that, Starting from January 2025, public holidays will be extended by two days as per revised measures on holiday arrangements unveiled by the State Council, or China's Cabinet, on Tuesday.
The Spring Festival holiday will be extended from the previous three days to four days, including the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year on Jan 28, while the May Day holiday will be increased from one day to two days, with May 2 newly added, according to the latest measures.
A new provision was added to the measures, stipulating that public holidays can be arranged to combine with adjacent weekends or paid annual leave to form longer holiday periods.
After the adjustment, the Spring Festival holiday next year will span eight days, starting from Lunar New Year's Eve, and the May Day holiday will be observed with a five-day holiday.
The time off will include days off that people will get for working additional days before and after the holidays to compensate for the long breaks.
For example, for Spring Festival, Jan 26 and Feb 8 will be the make-up days. People will need to report to work on both of these days, which will allow them to enjoy a longer holiday period of eight days instead of just the four.
In addition to the New Year's Day holiday that falls on Jan 1, the Tomb-Sweeping Day and Duanwu Festival, or Dragon Boat Festival, will each have a three-day holiday. The Mid-Autumn Festival overlaps with the National Day holiday next year, so the period will be extended to eight days beginning on Oct 1.
In response to public concerns about the additional working days to compensate for the long holiday breaks, the revised measures stipulated that the working days surrounding national holidays generally won't exceed six consecutive days, except in rare cases.
The new measures will come into effect on Jan 1, the State Council said.
Data from multiple travel platforms revealed a surge in ticket searches and bookings within half an hour of the announcement about the extended holidays.
The number of ticket searches for the 2025 Spring Festival holiday on online travel agency Qunar was 2.2 times higher than normal, with travelers from cities like Chengdu in Sichuan province, Zhengzhou in Henan province and Shanghai already booking flights for the evening before Lunar New Year's Eve.
Similarly, Tongcheng Travel, another agency, reported that searches for Spring Festival flights increased more than threefold compared with the previous day. Some travelers also began looking up international flights for the National Day holiday, it said.
Wang Yalei, an analyst at Trip.com Research Institute, said the addition of two extra public holiday days in 2025 has been widely welcomed.
Moreover, the adjustment eases the burden of "holiday shift adjustments", allowing travelers to enjoy longer, uninterrupted holidays. This flexibility supports staggered travel, reducing peak-time crowding, Wang said.
Zhou Zitong, a 32-year-old who works in the banking industry in Beijing, said he supports the revised measures, but he is still worried that the additional work days on weekends surrounding public holidays would affect his work schedule.
"According to the new holiday arrangement, we will still work for six consecutive days at least twice next year, which has probably led to negative reactions among the public," Zhou said.
