Public holiday extension announced

China has just announced a New Year holiday bonanza. Starting from January 2025, public holidays will be extended by two days as per revised measures on holiday arrangements unveiled by the State Council, or China's Cabinet, on Tuesday.

The Spring Festival holiday will be extended from the previous three days to four days, including the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year on Jan 28, while the May Day holiday will be increased from one day to two days, with May 2 newly added, according to the measures.

A new provision is added into the measures, stipulating that public holidays can be arranged to combine with adjacent weekends or paid annual leave to form longer holiday periods.

After the adjustment, the Spring Festival holiday next year will span eight days, starting from Lunar New Year's Eve, and the May Day holiday will be observed with a five-day holiday.

The time off will include make-up days that people will get for working additional days before and after the holidays to compensate for the long breaks.

For example, for Spring Festival, the make-up days will be Jan 26 and Feb 8. People will need to report to work on both of these days, which will allow them to enjoy a longer holiday period of eight days instead of just the four.

In addition, New Year's Day falls on Jan 1. The Tomb-Sweeping Day and Duanwu Festival, or Dragon Boat Festival, will each have a three-day holiday. The Mid-Autumn Festival overlaps with the National Day holiday next year, so the period will be extended to eight days beginning on Oct 1.

In response to public concerns about the additional working days to compensate for the long holiday breaks, the revised measures stipulated that the working days surrounding national holidays generally won't exceed six consecutive days, except in rare cases.

The new measures will come into effect on Jan 1, the State Council said.

Data from multiple travel platforms revealed a surge in ticket searches and bookings within half an hour of the announcement about extended holidays.

The number of ticket searches for the 2025 Spring Festival holiday on online travel agency Qunar was 2.2 times higher than normal, with travelers from cities like Chengdu in Sichuan province, Zhengzhou in Henan province and Shanghai already booking flights for the evening before Lunar New Year's Eve.

Similarly, Tongcheng Travel, another agency, reported that searches for Spring Festival flights increased more than threefold compared with the previous day. Some travelers also began looking up international flights for the National Day holiday, it said.

Wang Yalei, an analyst at Ctrip Research Institute, said the addition of two extra public holiday days in 2025 has been widely welcomed.

Moreover, the adjustment eases the burden of "holiday shift adjustments," allowing travelers to enjoy longer, uninterrupted holidays. This flexibility supports staggered travel, reducing peak-time crowding, Wang said.

Zhou Zitong, a 32-year-old who works in the banking industry in Beijing, said he supports the revised measures, but he is still worried that the additional work days on weekends surrounding public holidays would affect his work schedule.

"According to the new holiday arrangement, we will still work for six consecutive days at least twice next year, which has probably led to negative reactions among the public," Zhou said.