Chinese New Year 2027: Factory Production Planning

By ChinaManufacturers.com Editorial Desk · Updated 30 October 2026 · How this page was researched

When Chinese New Year falls in 2026 and 2027

Chinese New Year 2027, the first day of the lunar year, falls on Saturday 6 February 2027, with New Year's Eve on Friday 5 February, according to the lunar calendar as reported in the Chinese press. The official 2027 holiday dates, set each year by China's State Council, had not been published as of 30 October 2026, so no 2027 holiday window on this page is final.

Chinese New Year, known in China as the Spring Festival (春节), is the country's longest public holiday. The official holiday is not defined by the lunar date alone. Each year the General Office of the State Council issues a notice that fixes the days off and the make-up working days around them. For 2026, that notice (国办发明电〔2025〕7号, issued 4 November 2025) set the following:

Item	2026 (official)	2027 (status at 30 Oct 2026)
Lunar New Year's Day	Tuesday 17 February	Saturday 6 February (lunar calendar, per Chinese press)
Official holiday	Sunday 15 February to Monday 23 February, 9 days	Not yet announced
Make-up working days	Saturday 14 February and Saturday 28 February	Not yet announced
Instrument	State Council General Office notice, issued 4 Nov 2025	Notice expected around November 2026 (Chinese press)

Make-up working days (调休) are weekend days designated as working days so that the holiday block can run continuously. They change the working calendar on both sides of the holiday, and a production schedule that ignores them is wrong by a day or two at each end.

The official holiday is not the factory shutdown

The State Council notice sets the public holiday: 9 days in 2026. It does not set how long factories stop. Factories commonly close for longer than the official holiday because migrant workers travel home before it begins and return after it ends. That pattern is widely reported by trade press and sourcing firms, but no government statistic on the length of factory closures, or on how many workers return after the holiday, was found in this desk's research. Any specific number of weeks should be treated as practitioner experience, not data.

The travel itself has a name and an official calendar. Chunyun (春运), the Spring Festival travel season, runs about 40 days around the holiday and is widely described as the largest annual human migration in the world. China's Ministry of Transport and National Development and Reform Commission publish the official window and trip forecasts each year; the 2026 figures were not retrieved for this guide.

The working assumption for an importer is therefore simple: the production gap is longer than the published holiday, and its true length is a fact to obtain in writing from each supplier.

What happens before, during and after the holiday

Before

Suppliers push to finish and ship orders before workers leave. Ocean and air capacity out of China tightens in the same weeks, and carriers often add peak-season or general rate increase surcharges; this guide states their structure, not their size. Raw-material and component suppliers tend to close earlier than final assemblers, so a factory can run out of inputs before its own last working day.

During

Most factories, Chinese customs brokers, trucking firms and many forwarders' offices in China operate at minimal levels. No official notice closes the ports, and the State Council notice does not address them; ports and carriers keep running. Export cargo dries up, though, and carriers respond by cancelling scheduled sailings. UNCTAD's Review of Maritime Transport 2025 documents these blank sailings (scheduled voyages or port calls that a carrier skips) as a tool carriers use to manage capacity; it reported over 80 on the trans-Pacific route in April 2025, a month when the trigger was the 2 April 2025 US tariff announcements rather than a holiday. A blank sailing pushes cargo to the next available vessel.

After

Restart depends on how many workers come back. Quality risk is commonly cited during the ramp-up, when lines run with new hires; no official statistic measures it. The first post-holiday production runs are the ones to inspect most closely.

Changes to the holiday since 2025

China extended the Spring Festival statutory holiday from 2025. The national holiday regulations (全国年节及纪念日放假办法) are reported to have been revised in November 2024, effective 1 January 2025, adding New Year's Eve (除夕) as a statutory holiday day. The text of that revision was not retrieved for this guide and should be confirmed in the official source before it is relied on. What is confirmed is the result for 2026: a 9-day block from 15 to 23 February in the State Council notice.

The calendar mechanics are unchanged. The State Council still publishes the holiday notice for the following year late in the current one: the 2026 notice was issued on 4 November 2025, and Chinese press (Sohu, 8 October 2026) expected the 2027 notice around November 2026.

Building a production calendar around Chinese New Year

The steps below are planning practice, not sourced statistics. They follow from the structure described above.

Back-plan from three dates. The official holiday start, the factory's stated last production day, and the carrier's cargo cut-off. The earliest of the three governs.
Get the supplier's schedule in writing. The last production date, the restart date and the first shipping date after the holiday, for the factory and for any key component supplier.
Book freight early. Capacity is tightest in the weeks before the holiday, and last-minute bookings compete with every other exporter.
Inspect before closure. Schedule pre-shipment inspection so it is complete, and any rework done, before the factory stops.
Keep decisions out of the shutdown. Avoid placing new orders that need sampling, artwork approval or tooling decisions during the holiday, when the people who make them are away.
Plan the restart. Treat the first runs after the holiday as higher-risk and inspect them accordingly.

For 2027, the dates in the first step cannot be fixed until the State Council notice is published. A schedule built now on the lunar date should be revised when it appears.

Other Chinese holidays that affect production

Chinese New Year is the largest disruption but not the only one. The same 2026 State Council notice set the other official holidays:

New Year's Day: 1 to 3 January.
Qingming Festival: 4 to 6 April.
Labor Day: 1 to 5 May.
Dragon Boat Festival: 19 to 21 June.
Mid-Autumn Festival: 25 to 27 September.
National Day ("Golden Week"): 1 to 7 October, with make-up working days on 20 September and 10 October.

Golden Week and the Labor Day holiday produce shorter versions of the Chinese New Year effect: a pre-holiday shipping push, a pause, and a restart.

Common mistakes in Chinese New Year planning

Planning around the official 9-day holiday when the effective production gap is usually longer.
Forgetting make-up working days, such as Saturday 14 February and Saturday 28 February in 2026.
Treating the lunar date as the official holiday. The State Council notice defines the days off each year.
Treating 2027 holiday dates as official before the State Council notice is released.
Booking freight at the last minute, when capacity out of China is tightest.
Assuming suppliers will report delays unprompted. Ask for the written shutdown and restart schedule.

Frequently asked questions

When is Chinese New Year 2027?

Chinese New Year 2027 falls on Saturday 6 February 2027, with New Year's Eve on Friday 5 February, according to the lunar calendar as reported in Chinese press. The official 2027 public holiday dates had not been announced by China's State Council as of 30 October 2026; the notice is expected around November 2026.

When was Chinese New Year 2026?

Chinese New Year 2026 fell on Tuesday 17 February 2026. The State Council's notice 国办发明电〔2025〕7号, issued 4 November 2025, set the official holiday from Sunday 15 February to Monday 23 February, 9 days, with make-up working days on Saturday 14 February and Saturday 28 February 2026.

How long do Chinese factories close for Chinese New Year?

The official public holiday was 9 days in 2026, but factories commonly close for longer because migrant workers leave before the holiday and return after it. No official source measures the length of factory closures, so the actual gap should be confirmed in writing with each supplier, including its last production day and restart date.

When should I place orders before Chinese New Year?

No official guidance exists. Back-plan from the earliest of three dates: the official holiday start, the factory's stated last production day and the carrier's cargo cut-off. Allow time for pre-shipment inspection and any rework before the factory stops, and book freight early, because capacity tightens in the weeks before the holiday.

Do Chinese ports close for Chinese New Year?

No official port closure notice was found, and the State Council holiday notice does not address ports. Major ports and carriers keep operating, but export volumes fall and carriers commonly cancel scheduled sailings, known as blank sailings, which UNCTAD documents as a capacity tool. Cargo on a cancelled sailing moves to the next available vessel.

What are make-up working days in China?

Make-up working days are weekend days the State Council designates as working days so that a holiday can run as a continuous block. For the 2026 Spring Festival they were Saturday 14 February and Saturday 28 February. National Day 2026 had make-up days on 20 September and 10 October.

Chinese New Year holiday and production planning