How to maintain a China ordering calendar
Maintain a shared calendar with separate entries for official holidays and confirmed operating dates. Save each year's holiday notice, record make-up working days, and check every order against factory, laboratory, bank and carrier cut-offs. Assign an owner to update changes. Cambridge China Bridge can coordinate these confirmations with its own staff in China.
Start with the annual holiday notice
Build each year's baseline from that year's State Council General Office holiday notice. The notice covers New Year, Spring Festival, Qingming, Labour Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, including holiday arrangements and designated working weekends. Copy the complete holiday periods and make-up working dates, rather than recording only the festival days.
Save the notice with its publication date and the date you checked it. If the next year's notice is unavailable, label planning entries provisional and replace them when it appears. Use the China holiday calendar as a planning aid, then check its entries against the annual notice.
Confirm operating dates separately
Ask each organisation to confirm its own dates in writing. A factory reopening date does not establish when your production line, laboratory test, payment or cargo collection can proceed. Ask whether each make-up working day supports the particular service your order needs.
Keep the holiday baseline alongside the operating confirmations below. Record the relevant site or branch, named contact, confirmation date and any conditions attached to the booking.
| Organisation | Ask for | Record as evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Factory | Last material receipt, production stop, restart, expected capacity recovery and goods-ready date | Written confirmation for the actual production site and order |
| Laboratory | Last sample receipt, testing availability, report issue date and arrangements for retesting | Booking confirmation for the named laboratory and tests |
| Bank or payment provider | Payment submission cut-off, processing availability and expected credit to the supplier | Confirmation for the payment route, currency and receiving bank |
| Carrier or freight forwarder | Booking, collection, cargo acceptance, document and terminal cut-offs, plus service resumption | Confirmation for the route and booked service |
Turn confirmations into order deadlines
Work backwards from the required delivery date through transport, cargo acceptance, inspection, report approval, production and material availability. Put sample approval and payment clearance before the activity they unlock. Use shipping lead times for transport planning, but obtain order-specific dates from the organisations doing the work.
Give each milestone an owner, a confirmed or provisional status, and the evidence supporting it. Where a dependency remains unconfirmed, flag the delivery promise as at risk. Agree contingency time from the actual order conditions rather than applying the same holiday allowance to every supplier.
Review changes and verify the restart
Appoint a calendar owner and review affected orders before each holiday, whenever a booking changes and when operations resume. Retain earlier confirmations, log what changed and notify everyone whose milestone depends on it. Include UK bank, warehouse and delivery availability so that the destination can receive the goods.
After reopening, ask for evidence of progress on your order, such as material receipt, production status, sample acceptance or a confirmed collection. Treat office reopening and usable production capacity as separate milestones. For Spring Festival wind-down and restart planning, see Chinese New Year factory closure dates.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find China's official holiday dates?
Look for the State Council General Office holiday notice for the relevant year on an official Chinese government website. Save it and record both holiday periods and designated working weekends.
Do Chinese factories follow the public holiday dates?
Confirm each factory's actual closure, production restart and capacity recovery in writing. Use those dates for your order alongside the official holiday baseline.
Are Chinese make-up working weekends safe for shipments?
Only plan an activity on those dates after the organisation providing it confirms availability. Check the factory, laboratory, payment route and carrier separately.
What if next year's China holiday notice is not published?
Keep forecast dates clearly marked provisional. Seek tentative operating plans, avoid treating them as confirmed deadlines, and reconcile the calendar when the annual notice appears.