Why can't Chinese holidays be calculated by a formula?

Most PRC holidays follow the lunar calendar (Spring Festival, Qingming, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn) and the exact days off are announced annually by the State Council. This tool uses the official published schedules rather than guessing dates.

What is the day-swap or make-up working day rule?

To create long continuous holidays like Golden Week, China designates certain nearby Saturdays or Sundays as working days. These borrowed weekend days are counted as working days here, which is why a Saturday can appear in the working-day total.

Which years are supported with full accuracy?

The 2024, 2025, and 2026 official schedules are loaded in full, including every day off and every make-up working day. For other years the tool applies only the three solar-fixed statutory holidays and flags the result as approximate.

Does Golden Week really remove a whole week?

Yes. The National Day Golden Week around 1 October and the Spring Festival break each give seven or eight consecutive days off, assembled by combining statutory holidays with swapped weekends. The counter reflects both the days off and the borrowed working weekends.

Is this suitable for payroll or only scheduling?

It is built for supply-chain and SLA scheduling, telling you how many genuine working days a window contains. Payroll overtime multipliers for working on statutory holidays are a separate calculation not covered here.

China Public Holiday Counter

When you plan a delivery window or a production run against a Chinese calendar, weekends are not enough — the State Council both adds days off and converts nearby weekends into working days to build long holidays. This counter applies the real published schedule so your working-day total is accurate.

How it works

China’s holiday rules combine two lists that the State Council publishes each year:

off days   : the announced public holidays (Spring Festival, Golden Week, ...)
work days  : weekend dates that are reassigned as normal working days
working day = (Mon-Fri AND not an off day)  OR  (a designated make-up weekend)

The tool walks every date in your range, removes the announced days off, and adds back any weekend day that was officially designated a make-up working day.

Example and notes

The 2025 Spring Festival ran eight days off from 28 January to 4 February, paid for with two make-up working weekends on 26 January and 8 February. Because these swaps differ every year, the tool relies on the official 2024 to 2026 schedules rather than a formula. For years outside that range only the three solar-fixed holidays — New Year, Labour Day, and the start of National Day — are applied, and the result is clearly marked approximate.