China Golden Week 2026: Dates, Holidays & Makeup Workdays

Every autumn, China observes one of its longest public vacation periods: the October Golden Week. Centered on China's National Day on October 1, the holiday grants workers, students, and public institutions seven straight days away from regular schedules.

Understanding how the calendar works in practice requires looking at more than just the October 1–7 break. China's holiday system pairs official public holidays with shifted weekend rest days and compensatory working weekend days, officially known as tiáoxiū (调休). China's Golden Week calendar is determined annually by the General Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China through an administrative decree balancing statutory celebration with economic productivity. The seven-day holiday relies on a mandatory "tiaoxiu" (调休) system that shifts adjacent weekend days into workdays to create an unbroken seven-day recess. Verified regional calendars and statutory dates are cataloged on our China Public Holidays Hub.

Key Dates & Quick Answers

Complete Holiday & Workday Schedule

Here is the single reference schedule for the 2026 National Day holiday season, showing every day from the first adjusted working day through to post-holiday resumption:

Statutory Public Holidays vs. Adjusted Days Off

One of the most important aspects of China's holiday system is that not all seven days of Golden Week share the same administrative classification.

Under national regulations governing holidays, China's National Day comprises three statutory public holidays: October 1, 2, and 3. These three days are legally protected public holidays nationwide.

The remaining four days of Golden Week (October 4 through October 7) are adjusted rest days. They are assembled by combining the natural Sunday rest day on October 4 with transferred weekend days from elsewhere on the calendar. This structure creates a seven-day break without increasing the total number of statutory paid vacation days allocated by the government.

How Makeup Workdays Work in China

To create a long, continuous holiday block without reducing annual working hours, China uses an official calendar swapping mechanism known as tiáoxiū (调休), or "adjusted rest."

Because workers receive Tuesday, October 6, and Wednesday, October 7 off, those two business days must be balanced by working on designated weekend days adjacent to the holiday:

• Sunday, September 20, 2026: Serves as the makeup workday that offsets the rest day granted on Tuesday, October 6.
• Saturday, October 10, 2026: Serves as the makeup workday that offsets the rest day granted on Wednesday, October 7.

On these two dates, most government departments, schools, public institutions, and corporate offices operate on standard weekday schedules. Because these shifts are officially designated workdays, employees do not treat them as weekend overtime; they are regular scheduled shifts. When planning project milestones or personal time off, you can calculate balanced work weeks using our Leave Maximizer Tool.

Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day in 2026

In some years, such as 2025, China's lunar Mid-Autumn Festival falls immediately adjacent to early October, merging the two occasions into a single eight-day "Super Golden Week."

In 2026, the two holidays are celebrated separately:

• Mid-Autumn Festival: Observed from Friday, September 25 through Sunday, September 27, 2026. This provides a three-day weekend without requiring compensatory makeup workdays.
• Interim Workdays: Monday, September 28, Tuesday, September 29, and Wednesday, September 30, 2026, are regular full working days.
• National Day Golden Week: Begins the following morning on Thursday, October 1, 2026.

Because there is a three-day working window between the two breaks, daily activities, office work, and logistics continue normally during the final days of September before the October break begins.

What Opens and Closes During Golden Week

Because Golden Week is China's peak domestic travel and leisure week, different parts of the economy follow different operating schedules. The country does not shut down uniformly.

What Is Generally Closed

• Government Administration: Local municipal administrative centers, tax offices, public notary desks, and visa service centers generally pause routine public-counter services from October 1 to October 7.
• Corporate Offices & Schools: Most primary schools, high schools, universities, and corporate business offices are closed during the seven-day holiday.
• Financial Exchanges: Mainland securities exchanges (such as the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange) close from October 1 through October 7. Notably, they do not open for trading on the Saturday or Sunday makeup workdays.

What Stays Open

• Retail, Dining & Hospitality: Shopping malls, department stores, supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, and hotels remain fully open, frequently running extended operating hours to cater to holiday shoppers.
• Tourist Attractions: Museums, historical monuments, national parks, and theme parks stay open daily, operating at peak holiday capacity.
• Transport & Transit: Airports, domestic airlines, subways, city buses, and high-speed rail networks operate at maximum schedules.
• Banking Services: While commercial bank corporate desks and central clearing through the People's Bank of China pause, essential personal banking remains available. Many prominent branches maintain rotation staff for basic teller services, and automated teller machines (ATMs), online banking, and mobile payments (Alipay, WeChat Pay) operate normally 24/7. Check with specific branch locations for exact counter hours.

Travel Crowds, Trains, and Expressway Tolls

Golden Week is one of China's most active travel periods of the year, alongside the Lunar New Year Spring Festival. Hundreds of millions of passenger trips take place as families travel across provinces.

High-Speed Rail Bookings

Train travel during Golden Week experiences intense demand, particularly on routes connecting major hubs like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Xi'an. High-speed rail tickets via the official 12306 railway platform generally open for booking 15 days in advance. If you intend to travel during the holiday, planning reservations the moment the booking window opens is strongly recommended.

Expressway Toll Exemption

Under China's national holiday policy, passenger vehicles with seven seats or fewer can travel on toll expressways free of charge during major public holidays. For Golden Week 2026, the toll-free period runs from 00:00 on October 1 to 24:00 on October 7. This makes road travel convenient, though drivers should anticipate heavy traffic and congestion on major intercity expressways on the first and final days of the holiday.