Golden Week Holiday Arrangements in China | Generated by AI
Great question! Let me break it down for you clearly:
What is Golden Week in China?
Mainly refers to two long public holiday periods in China:
- Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) – usually 7 days off around late Jan/Feb.
- National Day Golden Week – October 1–7, celebrating the founding of the PRC.
These are mandated public holidays when government offices and most local companies close.
How Does the Holiday Arrangement Work?
China uses a holiday + “make-up workday” system.
- The official public holiday might only be 3 days long.
- To create a consecutive 7-day holiday, the government adjusts the weekend schedule.
- Example: If Oct 1–3 are official holidays, then Oct 4–7 are treated as time off.
- But employees must “switch” weekends → work on a Saturday or Sunday before/after to compensate.
- Result: People often get 7 consecutive days off, but they may lose their adjacent weekends.
This is why around Golden Week you’ll often see Chinese workers working on Sundays to “make up” for the upcoming long holiday.
Do All Companies in China Follow This?
- Chinese companies (state-owned and most private):
Must follow the State Council’s official holiday calendar (including make-up workdays). - Foreign companies in China:
Technically, they are supposed to honor statutory public holidays (at least those mandated days).- However, some multinationals set their own internal policies, especially if they want to align more with global practice.
- For example:
- They may not enforce weekend make-up working days (so staff get “real weekends”).
- They may provide alternative additional annual leave (e.g., instead of switching workdays, they just give actual paid leave to cover the missing days).
- This is legal as long as employees enjoy at least the government-mandated minimum holidays. Companies cannot give fewer than the statutory holidays, but they can give more.
Summary
- Golden Week = long consecutive holiday (Spring Festival & National Day).
- Government arrangement = official days off + weekend switching (so 7 straight days).
- Foreign companies in China: must provide statutory holidays, but they don’t have to enforce the “switch leave” rule. Many choose simpler systems (e.g., no weekend make-up shifts, just give extra leave instead).
👉 Would you like me to create a sample comparison calendar (Chinese official holiday vs how a foreign company might arrange it) for, say, National Day Golden Week 2024? That might make it easier to visualize the difference.