China order calendar 2027: when to order for Christmas and summer

An order date is derived from a delivery date, not the other way round. Set the date by which the goods must be available for sale, then subtract the actual transport time, the pre-shipment inspection and the production lead time quoted by the factory. Whatever day is left is your order deadline.

Two periods complicate this calculation in China in 2027: Chinese New Year, which shuts down part of the industry for several weeks at the start of the year, and the October Golden Week, which saturates freight capacity just before it closes. A calendar that ignores these two windows always slips from one season to the next.

The official calendar of Chinese public holidays for 2027, with its make-up working days, had not yet been published at the time of writing. The official notice from the State Council is generally released at the end of the preceding year: the one for 2026 was published on 4 November 2025. The dates below are therefore calendar dates calculated in advance for the lunar festivals, not officially decreed days off. Two dates stay fixed every year, with no lunar calculation: 1 May and 1 October.

Around Chinese New Year, the official public holiday says nothing about a workshop's real schedule. Most factories close three to four weeks before the official date, to give workers time to travel, and ramping back up to full speed takes several more weeks afterwards: the total disruption often spans six to eight weeks. A share of the workforce, estimated at close to a third by specialised logistics guides, does not come back, forcing some factories to recruit and train new teams in early February.

Around the October Golden Week, many factories close or scale back activity, and operations officially resume only on 8 October, with freight normalising taking further time beyond that. On the already-confirmed 2026 calendar, only three working days separated Mid-Autumn (25 to 27 September) from the Golden Week (1 to 7 October); in 2027, the gap between the provisional Mid-Autumn date (15 September) and National Day leaves more margin, to be confirmed once the official calendar is published.

Faced with a known deadline, a standard preparation timeline recurs year after year among freight professionals. It is read in weeks before the shutdown, not before the final delivery date.

China-Europe sea freight is one of the most decisive variables in an order calendar: port-to-port transit ranges from 25 to 45 days from Shenzhen, often 35 to 55 days from Shanghai or Ningbo, due to the current rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope. This benchmark builds the calendar season by season, around the year's two Chinese shutdowns.

The Canton Fair remains the most structuring event for sourcing new suppliers: spring session from 15 April to 5 May, autumn session from 15 October to 4 November, each in three phases. This calendar, announced for autumn 2026, is carried over by analogy for 2027; the organiser had not yet published official confirmation at the time of writing. Check the exact calendar on the official site before booking a flight or hotel.

The spring session prepares summer and back-to-school orders, the autumn session prepares the following year's orders.

Planning around the official public holiday alone, without the factory's actual shutdown, which often starts several weeks before and continues after. Assuming a single transport lead time: depending on the port and route, sea transit to Europe can double, from 25 to more than 50 days.

Booking freight at the last minute before the Golden Week or Chinese New Year, when demand concentrates into a few weeks. Never asking the factory directly for its closure date and reopening plan, relying instead on a generic calendar rather than written confirmation.

Sorva builds the countdown for every order from the chosen factory's actual closure date, not the theoretical date on the Chinese calendar. Our Chinese-speaking team in Guangzhou confirms directly with the workshop its closure date, its order deadline and its reopening plan.

For an order timed to a season, our full supplier search frames the production calendar from the outset; for a calendar that repeats every year, a monthly follow-up keeps an eye on factory deadlines. In most cases you open a file, we negotiate the merchandise on your behalf and we take a commission on its ex-works value.