China holiday shipping calendar, 2026 to 2027

What is the Chinese New Year 2027 shipping deadline?

Chinese New Year 2027 falls on Saturday 6 February, eleven days earlier than the 2026 festival on 17 February, so the production runway before it is shorter than last year's. The statutory holiday is New Year's Eve plus the first three days of the lunar year, 5 to 8 February, but factories stop well before that and restart well after. The dates below work backwards from 6 February using the lead times in SEKO Logistics' planning guide, which is the most complete current source we read.

1. Now to October 2026: get the supplier's CNY calendar. Ask for its last production day and the day it expects to reopen. SEKO suggests confirming production schedules 4 to 5 months ahead, which is September to October 2026.
2. 28 November to 12 December 2026: finalise production orders. That is 8 to 10 weeks before the holiday. An order placed after this window is a rush order.
3. Mid-December 2026: expect ocean rates to start climbing. SEKO reports general rate increases every one to two weeks through January as shippers rush cargo out.
4. Early to mid January 2027: rush-order cut-off. Around the same time (9 to 16 January) factories begin reducing capacity as workers leave for home.
5. Mid to late January 2027: last realistic ocean departures. Book the space 3 to 4 weeks before departure, 4 to 5 weeks at the peak, and expect some containers to be rolled to a later vessel even with a booking.
6. Late January 2027: last air bookings. SEKO puts air bookings 1 to 2 weeks before the holiday.
7. 30 January to mid-March 2027: plan around the gap. A complete shutdown clustered around 30 January to 14 February, a slow restart at about 35% of the workforce, and normal capacity roughly 6 to 20 March.

In practice, for a small seller the question is which stock has to land before the restart. If a product sells steadily through February and March, the order that covers those weeks has to be in production before December is out. Whatever misses that window is safer planned as an April arrival than as a gamble on the last January sailing. Air is the fallback for the gap, not a way to rescue a production order that was placed too late: the goods still have to be made first.

The official 2027 block and its make-up workdays will change which weekdays factories work in late January and February. When the notice is published we will update the Chinese New Year 2027 (Spring Festival) row the same week.

How do Golden Week 2026 shipping delays play out?

Golden Week 2026 is official: 1 to 7 Oct 2026 (Thu to Wed), 7 days, with make-up workdays on Sunday 20 September and Saturday 10 October. In 2026 it follows the Mid-Autumn Festival (25 to 27 September) with only three working days in between, which compresses the pre-holiday rush into a very short window.

• Before the break: Crane Worldwide describes exporters moving cargo before the holiday, a surge in ocean and air volumes through September, constrained capacity and upward pressure on rates.
• During the break: factories, warehouses and government offices may close or run on reduced staff, and cargo processing slows.
• On the water:Drewry's 25 September analysis counts 58 blank sailings across the main East-West trades for weeks 40 to 44, 8% of 712 planned, with 64% of them on the Transpacific eastbound. Maersk's advisory lists Golden Week blankings on two Asia to US services.
• After the break: operations may need additional time to return to normal. No source we read puts a fixed number of days on that, so we do not either.

If your goods are not handed over by 30 September, the realistic plan is a departure from 8 October onward. Ask the supplier whether it works on 10 October, the official make-up Saturday, so you know whether that day counts toward your production time.

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China's 2026 National Day holiday runs from 1 to 7 October with make-up workdays on 20 September and 10 October, according to the State Council General Office; Chinese New Year 2027 falls on 6 February, and the official 2027 holiday schedule had not been published as of September 26, 2026 (Plain Freight, China holiday shipping calendar).

Canonical URL: https://plainfreight.com/data/china-holiday-shipping-calendar. Spotted a change or an error? Write to hello@plainfreight.com and we will check it against the notice.

What do importers ask about China holidays?