Tag: Holidays

Understanding China’s Work Holiday Schedule

September 16, 2015

One thing that often trips up business travelers to China is the unique Chinesecalendar-20clip-20art-calendar holiday schedule. It has not been unheard of for Westerners arriving to plan rapid-fire meetings only to learn they accidentally overlapped their trip with a 4-day holiday that “came out of nowhere.”

Never fear! Here are some useful tips for you to understand and plan around the Chinese work holiday schedule like a pro.

  1. The Official 2015 Chinese Public Holiday Calendar

Thanks to Baidu.com, here is the official 2015 public holiday calendar in China. (The original post is in Chinese, I translated to English. Click this link for the Chinese version.)

 

Holiday Public Holiday Time Compensation Days (explained below) total off days
New Year’s 1/1 – 1/3 Sunday, January 4 is a work day 3
Spring Festival 2/18 – 2/24 Sunday, February 15 and Saturday, February 28 are work days 7
Tomb Sweeping Festival 4/4 – 4/6 Monday, April 6th is an off-day to make the holiday a 3-day weekend 3
Labor Day 5/1 – 5/3 Monday, May 3 is an off-day to make the holiday a 3-day weekend 3
Dragonboat Festival 6/20 – 6/22 Monday, June 22 is an off-day to make the holiday a 3-day weekend 3
WWII Victory Day Festival 9/3 – 9/5 Friday, September 4 is an off-day, and Sunday September 6 becomes a workday 3
Mid-Autumn Festival 9/26 – 9/27 The weekend days are the holiday 2
PRC National Day 10/1 – 10/7 Saturday, October 10 becomes a work day 7

2. Explaining the Tiaoxiu “Compensation” Days

China has what seems very strange to Westerners: tiaoxiu, or “compensation” days. Depending on when the holidays fall, the government will essentially move the work week backwards or forwards a day to allocate consecutive days for the rest period. For example, you’ll note above for the New Year’s holiday that though the holiday itself was from Thursday, January 1 to Saturday, January 3rd, the following day, January 4th, was denoted as a work day. Thus, the holiday is designed for people to get their “three-day weekend” starting on Thursday, and return to work on Sunday.

This year was particularly strange as the Mid-Autumn Festival days, which depends on the lunar calendar, fell entirely on a weekend and also very near to the succeeding National Day holiday. Employees in China were not robbed of their precious days off, however, as the government scheduled the much publicized “WWII Victory Day” Celebration at the beginning of September. The compensation day voodoo was again utilized here as Thursday the 3rd to Saturday the 5th were off-days, but people returned to work on Sunday. Plus, this made up for the “lost” days of the Mid-Autumn Festival

3. Understanding China’s Spring Festival Holiday

The big one that trips people up is the Spring Festival. Since the holiday is based on the lunar calendar, the timing of this week-long holiday varies year to year. Generally, the official public holiday will fall sometime between mid-January and the end of February, but you should always pay attention to when exactly the holiday will be months before making any business travel.

While the official public holiday is only a week, the Chinese Spring Festival holiday is akin to what we experience in America around Christmas/New Year’s time, but on steroids. China is really slow for business throughout most of January and February, and starts building up momentum again only after the holiday concludes. As I’ve written about before, China is home to the world’s largest human migration every year around the Spring Festival. Many employees will take all their available vacation days around that time to extend the holiday. Most business owners are traveling home or perhaps abroad.

My best advice is to get what you need to get done before January 1st, and then wait until after Spring Festival to make your trip to the Orient. Looking ahead to 2016, next year’s Spring Festival is slated for February 7 to February 13.

4. Plan ahead

The good news is that now this doesn’t have to be a total mystery to you if you merely plan ahead. The Chinese government typically issues the official public holiday schedule sometime between December 9th and December 14th. You can check back on this blog around then to get the scoop!

3 Quick Ways to Impress Your Guests at the DCBA Chinese New Year Gala

Today, February 24th, marks the end of the official Chinese New Year holiday. But, the party doesn’t have to stop. In fact, my friends at the Detroit Chinese Business Association are throwing a belated Chinese New Year Gala this coming Friday, February 27th, at Motor City Casino. Lucky for you, I have three quick CNY tips that you can use to impress your Chinese guests.

1. The many ways to say “Happy New Year!”

There is an assortment of Chinese phrases used to express Happy New Year. Here are a few:

新年快乐 (Pinyin： Xīnnián kuàilè!; prounounced: shin -NEEan – kwai – le）- This is the most basic, traditional “Happy New Year” greeting.

全家幸福（Pinyin：Quánjiā xìngfú；pronounced: Chew-enn Jia Shing-Foo) – Here you are wishing their entire family good fortune.

万事如意（Pinyin：Wànshì rúyì；pronounced: Wan-SHH ROO-EE)- Ok, this will REALLY impress them. It is a very traditional phrase meaning “Good luck and may all your wishes come true.”

If you can’t remember them, you can always download Google translate (iPhone, Android). Make sure you are translating from CHINESE TO ENGLISH, and then paste the Chinese characters I wrote above into the translation window. You can click on the little speaker next to the phrase and the phone will pronounce it in Chinese for you. Pretty slick.

2. Download WeChat

If you’re doing business in China and you or someone at your office doesn’t have WeChat yet on your smartphone, GET IT NOW! WeChat is used prolifically in business, and according to statista.com, there are now over 438 million active monthly users. It is by far the best way for you to keep communication with your business partners in China, and new friends you will make at this year’s gala.

Trust me, your Chinese guests will be really impressed when right after you meet them you say “Hey, can I add your Wechat?” You can read in Forbes about how WeChat was used across China during this Chinese New Year.

3. Gan Bei! Cheers!

Drinking is a huge part of the Chinese New Year tradition. So you can survive, and thrive, at this year’s Chinese New Year Gala, you need to remember the phrase for cheers in Chinese, “Gan Bei” (pronounced GAAN-BAY). Critically, make a point to cheers everyone INDIVIDUALLY at your table, and if you’re up for it, everyone around the room. Don’t be lazy! Clinking glasses with everyone for a personal toast is very important, and it should be fun. If you can remember to add one of my Happy New Year phrases above, you get bonus points!

I hope you enjoy your time at the gala and that you find these tips useful. If you do happen to use them, I would love to hear about it! You can write me at danredford10@gmail.com or tweet me @DanRedford. Gan Bei!

"Gan Bei" with my girlfriend and her cousins for Chinese New Year 2015 in Yueyang, Hunan Province
“Gan Bei” with my girlfriend and her cousins for Chinese New Year 2015 in Yueyang, Hunan Province

 

Five Tips to Survive Chinese New Year

It is hard to believe that another year has gone by so quickly. Chinese New Year is on Wednesday, and festivities are already beginning. As I wrote last year, every year at this time in China we witness the greatest annual human migration. And once again, hundreds of millions of people will be moving across China, taking approximately 3.6 billion travel journeys.

This year I’m keeping it domestic, traveling with my girlfriend to her relatives’ home in Hunan and Jiangsu. For those of you traveling in China for the holidays, here are five tips to make sure you survive and have fun!

1. Be Vigilant!

The U.S. Embassy has recently issued a warning to be wary of potential terrorist attacks being planned around Chinese New Year. Although the odds are low that you’d be in the midst of something terrible like this, just please be vigilant as you are traveling this season. There has been an uptick in violent acts in public places recently throughout China, so be sure to keep your eyes open while you are shifting through huge crowds of travelers.

If you haven’t yet, take the opportunity now to register yourself with the state department if you are traveling abroad: https://step.state.gov/step/

2. Brush up on your local dialect

Since over half of China’s population now live and work in cities, the Spring Festival is an important time when families will leave the metropoles and return to see their families in their laojia, or hometown. Although the common language of Mandarin is spoken throughout China, more often in smaller cities local dialects are almost uniformly spoken. Make no mistake, local dialects are so different than Mandarin that even Chinese people cannot understand local dialects from outside their hometown.

Do what you can to brush up on a local dialect before your trip, but generally just reside yourself to nodding and smiling for most of your trip.

3. Get Ready for China’s Super Bowl，the famous “春节联欢晚会” Spring Festival Gala 

In the U.S., we like to think that hundreds of millions of viewers watching the Super Bowl every year is a big deal. China has us beat. The most widely watched television program in the world occurs in China every year. It is called the “Spring Festival Gala,” or “New Year’s Gala,” and it is broadcast live on China Central Television (CCTV) every Chinese New Year’s Eve.

Last year, the show garnered over 800 million viewers! According to statista.com, that’s almost as many as the number of people that watched the Super Bowl in the entire 1990s combined.

If you are spending the Spring Festival somewhere in China with friends and family, the tube will most definitely be turned to this on New Year’s Eve.

4. Get your excuses ready to turn down Baijiu

Baijiu, translated as “white liquor,” is the famous national Chinese liquor. It tastes a little bit like lighter fluid mixed with bubble gum. For those of us that have spent years in China, we’ve been able to develop a tolerance, perhaps even a likeness, to the “devil’s juice.”

But Chinese New Year is a whole different animal when it comes to Baijiu. If you are spending this time in a Chinese city, you have to be prepared to be tempted to cheers to baijiu again, and again, and again.

If you can’t handle it, don’t be embarrassed. Make sure you come prepared with excuses to turn down the frequent clinking of the little glasses. A real man can handle a little cajoling from the relatives better than he can handle copious amounts of the liquor itself. Trust me, your liver will thank you later.

Some of the best ones:

“I’m an American and Chinese New Year is not a holiday in America, so I have work to do and can’t be drunk.”

“I’m allergic.”

“I’m preparing for a decathlon.” (Bring athletic gear to really sell it on this one.)

5. Go Native

Wherever you might find yourself in China this Spring Festival, you’re going to find yourself with plenty of opportunities to share in local traditions. As the Chinese say, ru xiang sui su – “Do as the Romans Do.” Eat all the weird food. Get up early and join in the sometimes quirky “family exercises.” Keep offering to help cook the meal and clean the dishes, even though you know that they’ll never let you.

Whether you can speak Chinese or not, these efforts will be endearing and are the best way to show your gratefulness for being invited into their home for this all-important holiday. Plus, going native is the sure fire way for you to grow and learn the most during this time.

Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year – The World’s Largest Annual Human Migration

We just celebrated Chinese New Year here on this side of the pond. In this China US Focus piece, I give my perspective on what has literally become the world’s largest annual human migration.

You can read the post on China US Focus, or simply scroll down for the text in this blog. Happy New Year!

 

Chinese New Year: The World’s Largest Annual Human Migration

By Dan Redford

As Published in China US Focus

Every year in China about this time, the ground starts to shake. Don’t be too alarmed; I’m not talking about an earthquake. I’m talking about China’s most important holiday, “Chinese New Year,” otherwise known as “Chunyun” or “Spring Festival.” Since living in China and experiencing the Spring Festival first hand, I’ve come to prefer another, more descriptive term for this holiday season: the world’s largest annual human migration.

In China, it is estimated that for this year’s Spring Festival, there will be over 3.6 billion “journeys” by Chinese people trying to make it home by plane, train, bus, or anything in between. For comparison, in the U.S. a mere 93.3 million people travelled domestically during the 2012 holiday season.

Unlike in the West where the year-end holiday season marks a mild slowdown in business and about 10 days off of work, the Chinese Spring Festival puts that to shame. Those 3.6 billion journeys will happen over a period of 40 days, this year lasting from January 16th to February 24th. For foreigners that are accustomed to doing business in China, this can be one of the most frustrating and confusing times of the year. If one is used to returning to their home country for the traditional Western holiday season, it is often just as practical to stay put and “wait out” the Spring Festival time.

Even though the New Year’s holidays do not officially begin until January 31st, there is a strong feeling of lethargy that begins in mid-January, creeping up gradually to the official holiday in which all business stops. While it is advisable to avoid trying to do business in China during this time, it is an amazing, albeit hectic, time to witness the complicated mix of wonderment and chaos that is modern China. The reason that the roads and trains are so crowded with people is that millions upon millions of people across China’s biggest cities are considered waidiren, or “out-of-towners.” According to the China Labour Bulletin, around 260 million Chinese farmers have moved from their hometowns for work in the cities.

These millions of people flock to metropolises like Beijing, Shanghai, or Shenzhen to find higher paying jobs than they could get at home. They spend most of their days in the city working long hours for salaries that net less than $500 a month on average. Half or more of that salary will be sent back to their families in their hometown. For most, the Spring Festival time is a nice respite from a long year of work, and a time to be reunited with family.

Needless to say, this holiday exacerbates China’s ongoing transportation nightmares. China has invested billions of dollars over the last decade into building the world’s largest network of fast-speed trains, collectively crisscrossing China’s terrain with over 12,000km (roughly 7,450 miles) of High-Speed Rail (HSR). It has been an impressive achievement, and yet, according to Want China Times, the rail lines can only accommodate 220 million people, a mere 10% of Spring Festival travelers. China’s massive population continues to force the country to keep moving and continue building to accommodate higher demands for people to more conveniently transport between the big cities and the rest of China. It is for this reason that China is aiming to have 19,000 kilometers of operational HSR by 2015, averaging construction of 10,000 km of new rails lines annually over the next few years.

For those of us living here, all we can really do is witness and experience the migration of millions of people at a time. Now, more than ever, it will need to innovate at a higher pace to keep up with a changing population with new concerns and higher expectations.

Still, as we consider the meaning of Spring Festival for Chinese people, it ultimately is a time for family and tradition. The billions of journeys happening across China are not just about the hectic travel but also about the warm embrace of loved ones that have come from afar. It is Chinese tradition over the Chunyun holiday season to blast off fireworks on New Year’s Eve, and continue to do so every day until the seasons officially ends 15 days later. One of my fondest memories from living in China was experienced while at a friend’s hometown village in Northeast Liaoning province. Though the air outside was a chilly 35 degrees below zero, our hearts were warm as the tiny village lit up with fireworks that were being shot up dozens at a time into the cold night air.

Huge gatherings of Chinese extended families come together at this time; it is not uncommon to have 30 or more relatives staying under the same roof for the holiday season. It is an amazingly warm experience filled with love and tradition that only comes around once a year.

The Spring Festival is an essential piece of Chinese culture that must be understood and respected to really be an effective observer or businessperson in this complicated country. So if you haven’t already, go wish all your Chinese colleagues and friends a happy and bless Year of the Horse!

Dan Redford is the Director of China Operations for FirstPathway Partners, and industry leading EB5 immigration fund manager. He also serves as the President of the Michigan State University Beijing Alumni Club. You can follow him and his perspectives from China athttp://www.danredford.com.