China Mid-Autumn & National Day 2026: Shipping Cut-Off Calendar

China’s Mid-Autumn Festival holiday runs September 25-27, 2026, and the National Day (Golden Week) holiday runs October 1-7, 2026 — two closures inside three weeks, confirmed by the State Council’s official notice. Around both dates, factories wind down, customs and freight-forwarding offices run on skeleton staff, and the run-up to each break sees a rush of bookings that tightens vessel and air space. If you import from China, treat mid-September through mid-October as a single planning window rather than two separate events.

Because the two holidays sit so close together, the practical effect on a shipment is often larger than either break looks on its own: a supplier that “loses” the Mid-Autumn week rarely fully catches up before National Day starts. Work backwards from the official dates below, and confirm your specific supplier’s and forwarder’s cut-offs directly — the calendar is fixed, but exactly how each factory and carrier plans around it is not.

Key takeaways

• Mid-Autumn Festival is a 3-day public holiday, September 25-27, 2026 (Friday through Sunday); no separate make-up workday is attached to it.
• National Day (Golden Week) is a 7-day public holiday, October 1-7, 2026 (Thursday through Wednesday), with Sunday September 20 and Saturday October 10 worked as make-up days.
• Bookings made close to either holiday typically face the tightest space and the highest risk of a rolled sailing, because everyone is trying to move cargo before the same two deadlines.
• Customs, warehouses and trucking also run reduced schedules over both windows — the slowdown is not limited to factory floors.
• Recovery after October 7 is typically gradual, not immediate, as offices restaff and a backlog from both closures clears.
• All timing below is a planning calendar, not a promise of space or a transit estimate — confirm your supplier’s shutdown and your forwarder’s live booking situation directly.

Official 2026 holiday calendar

The State Council’s General Office published the 2026 holiday notice on November 4, 2025. These are the dates that apply nationally; provincial and local offices, and individual factories, may adjust their own working days around them.

Date	Event	Working day?
Sunday, September 20, 2026	Make-up workday, shifted ahead of the National Day break	Working
Friday, September 25 – Sunday, September 27, 2026	Mid-Autumn Festival public holiday	Holiday
Thursday, October 1 – Wednesday, October 7, 2026	National Day (Golden Week) public holiday	Holiday
Saturday, October 10, 2026	Make-up workday, shifted from the National Day break	Working

Government offices, most factories and customs follow this calendar. What varies supplier by supplier is how much earlier production actually stops before the holiday starts, and how long output takes to return to normal once the holiday ends — confirm both directly rather than assuming the official dates are the full operational picture.

Working backwards from the holidays

Rather than count days, plan against the calendar dates themselves. A practical sequence, working from the last stage back to the first:

• Production completion. Aim to have goods finished before the Sunday, September 20 make-up workday — that is effectively the last full working week before the Mid-Autumn closure begins, and many factories start slowing output ahead of it rather than stopping abruptly on September 25.
• Loading and warehouse delivery. Cargo should be packed and delivered to the port or consolidation warehouse in that same pre-September-20 window. Trucking and warehouse staff also reduce their schedules around both holidays, so a delivery planned for the days immediately before either break is the least reliable window on the calendar.
• Customs declaration. File export declarations before the holiday windows open wherever possible. Customs offices follow the public-holiday calendar, so a declaration submitted at the last moment is the one most likely to sit unprocessed until the holiday ends — confirm the specific cut-offs with your forwarder.
• Cut-off and document deadlines. Carriers typically bring forward their cargo and document cut-offs (截关/截单) for sailings and flights in the days right before September 25 and again right before October 1. Ask your forwarder for the specific cut-off dates on your lane — do not assume the usual weekly schedule holds through either week.
• Booking and departure. Reserve space ahead of both rushes rather than into them. Vessel space in particular tightens in the run-up to each holiday as shippers converge on the same two deadlines, and a late booking is the one most likely to be rolled to a later sailing.

Ocean vs air around the two holidays

The two modes are affected differently, and the difference matters most for anyone caught close to either deadline.

• Ocean schedules are set further in advance and adjust less flexibly once disrupted. Carriers commonly blank or consolidate sailings around both holiday windows, and a booking that slips past its intended sailing typically has to wait for the next available one rather than a quick substitute.
• Air freight generally keeps more schedule flexibility, though cargo space still tightens as general cargo and e-commerce shippers compete for the same capacity ahead of both closures, and ground handling at origin airports slows over the holiday days themselves.
• Air is the more realistic bridge for urgent cargo caught by either closure. If an ocean booking is rolled or a restock cannot wait, air freight is the practical way to keep moving during the gap — our air vs ocean freight from China guide covers how to weigh that trade-off for a specific shipment.

After the holidays: recovery and Q4 planning

Expect a gradual restart after October 10, not an immediate return to the pre-holiday pace. Factories bring workers back over a period of days to weeks, customs and trucking work through a backlog built up over both closures, and the first sailings and flights after National Day are typically the busiest of the quarter.

These two closures also land at the start of the Q4 peak-buying season, so the practical takeaway is to treat the backward-planning habit above as a rehearsal rather than a one-off. The same discipline — locking production, loading, customs and booking dates against the calendar rather than against a day count — applies at even greater scale ahead of the longer Chinese New Year 2027 shutdown; see our Chinese New Year 2027 shipping guide for how that bigger closure changes the calendar again in early February.

Frequently asked questions

What are the official dates for Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day in 2026? Mid-Autumn Festival is September 25-27, 2026 (a 3-day holiday), and National Day is October 1-7, 2026 (a 7-day holiday), per the State Council General Office’s notice published November 4, 2025.

Are there make-up workdays around these holidays? Yes. Sunday, September 20 and Saturday, October 10, 2026 are both worked as ordinary business days so the National Day break totals seven consecutive days off. Mid-Autumn Festival has no attached make-up workday.

How much earlier should I get cargo ready? There is no single fixed lead time — it depends on your supplier, product and carrier. As a calendar anchor, treat the week ending Sunday, September 20 as the last full working week before disruption begins, and confirm your specific supplier’s and forwarder’s cut-off dates directly rather than assuming a standard number of days.

Does customs keep processing during the holidays? Customs offices run on reduced staffing through both holiday windows rather than closing entirely, but processing is slower than usual. Filing before each holiday starts avoids relying on that reduced capacity.

Can air freight bridge the gap if ocean space is booked out? Yes. Air freight typically keeps more schedule flexibility than ocean around both closures, which makes it the practical option for urgent cargo or a restock that cannot wait for a rolled ocean booking to clear.

If you want help mapping your shipment against the Mid-Autumn and National Day calendar — or deciding between ocean and air for something time-sensitive — message us on WhatsApp with your product, volume and destination, and we will help you plan around both closures.