Consider Chinese Holidays When Planning Your Next Custom Retail Display

If you are planning to have your next custom retail display manufactured in China, it is important to know China’s holiday schedule since it can significantly impact production and shipping schedules. Most people are familiar with the biggest of all worldwide extended holidays- Chinese Lunar New Year. By now people doing business in China have learned to plan around that inconvenient 2-3 week period which typically occurs in late January or February, but many people get blindsided by the myriad of other China holidays that fall below the radar but can cause unforeseen delays.

In fact, there are approximately 27 National Holidays or Common Local Holidays that occur throughout the year in China. That’s about 2.5 times the number of official federal or public holidays in the U.S. Before getting into some of the other holidays, it is important to understand the real impact of Chinese New Year, affectionately known as “CNY.” CNY is more than just a 2-week delay. Production and shipping schedules tend to get jammed with orders trying to ship before CNY.  Raw material suppliers begin shutting down as early as 2 weeks before the official start of the holiday, and many workers extend the holiday and often do not return to their factory job.

In recent years as workers in China have gained more power, the lost production time from CNY has increased so planning on 3-4 weeks of lost production or reduced production output is wise. In addition, CNY tends to be inherently inflationary since many factories find that they have to raise wages after CNY to attract enough workers to replace the ones who never return after CNY.

In 2016, Chinese New Year officially falls on Monday February 8th. The following day begins Spring Festival Golden Week Holiday which runs from February 9th through February 13th. Many factories will shut down or work with skeletal crews a week before the official CNY holiday and some will remain closed as much as a week following the end of the Spring Festival Golden Week Holiday. In planning your production, it is important to understand that craziness ensues just prior to CNY since virtually the entire world is trying to get containers on the water before the shut down. Book containers early and be sure to ask your POP supplier when is the latest you can place orders to have your displays guaranteed to leave China before CNY.

In addition to CNY, China has lots of other holidays, including Labor Day (May 1, 2016), Dragon Boat Festival (June 9, 2016), Mid-Autumn Festival (September 15, 2016) , National Day/Golden Week Holiday (October 1-7, 2016), and Qing Ming Je holiday (Tomb Sweeping holiday- April 14, 2016).  Next to CNY, National Day/Golden Week Holiday is the longest and most noteworthy from a scheduling standpoint.

There are many other holidays that are classified as common local holidays or observance holidays. There’s a Teacher’s Day and a Journalists’ Day and then lots of festivals such as Double Seven Festival, Spirit Festival, Double Ninth Festival, and Zhonghe Festival. As a kid growing up in the U.S., I always felt slighted that there was not a Kid’s Day. When I asked my parents about it, they gave me the answer that every parent gives: “Every day is Kid’s Day.” Interestingly, in China they do not celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, but apparently as the result of a very strong kids’ lobbying effort there is both a Youth Day and a Children’s Day. Kudos to the kids of China. For an official calendar of 2016 Chinese Holidays, go to

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/china/2016.

China is a hardworking, industrious society, but they do like their holidays so it is best to plan for them.