A Practical Guide to Chinese Spring Festival 2015

If you are in China during 2015’s Chinese New Year period, the following table might be useful to you. Several pointers are listed, such as when transport is most crowded, when it improves, when there are lots of fireworks, whether banks and government offices are open in this period, when shops re-open, greetings and customs,

Date	Activities	Transport	Business
February 1–17	Homeward Bound, Cleaning, shopping	Crazy busy	End of year company events; winding down of operations
February 18 (New Year's Eve)	Pasting red couplets, hanging red lanterns, the New Year reunion dinner, setting off firecrackers, giving red envelops to kids, staying up late to watch CCTV’s New Year Gala	Better, but local transport can be busy	Most shops close by the afternoon
February 19 (New Year’s Day)	At midnight a barrage of fireworks and firecrackers like WW3, more firecrackers in the morning (before opening the door) and early evening (before dinner); visiting neighbors or friends and relatives nearby; giving kids red envelopes, staying at home to relax or visiting parks	Quiet	No bank or government office is open. Only big shopping malls are open.
February 20 (Chinese New Year day 2)	Visiting friends or relatives, firecrackers for greeting guests and before dinner	Quiet	Almost no bank or government office is open. Only big shopping malls are open.
February 21 (Chinese New Year day 3)	Visiting friends and relatives in the city or friends and family in nearby villages	Local travel and town and village buses are busy, but travel to other cities and domestic flights are ok.	Some banks and government offices are open, but business is limited and hours are much shorter. Only some big shopping malls are open.
February 22–23 (Chinese New Year days 4 and 5)	The statutory holiday period is over. Some people will keep visiting friends and relatives; some will go back to work.	Very busy	Most banks and government offices will be open, but business is limited and hours are shorter. Most shops will be open.
February 24 (New Year day 6)	For most it’s the first day back at work.	Very busy	Almost all shops, companies, and offices will reopen on this day, because 6 is a lucky number in Chinese culture.
February 25 – March 5 (New Year days 7–15)	Return travel; Lantern Festival is on the 5th	Crazy busy	Some businesses may choose the 8th (February 26) to reopen, as 8 is also a lucky number. The non-superstitious may reopen on the 25th