China's commercial calendar has a rhythm that affects supply chains, consumer spending, and buyer behaviour in ways that catch many New Zealand and Australian exporters off-guard. Planning around the key dates - rather than reacting to them - is a practical way to reduce operational friction and capture opportunities that are visible well in advance.
Chinese New Year: the most significant operational disruption
Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, falls between late January and mid-February depending on the lunar calendar. It is China's most important public holiday and involves a national shutdown of manufacturing, logistics, and most commercial activity for one to three weeks, with effects extending further as workers travel home before the holiday and return to cities afterwards.
For NZ and AU exporters shipping physical goods to China, the practical implication is clear: shipments that need to arrive before Chinese New Year must be dispatched significantly earlier than the holiday itself. Chinese freight forwarders, customs brokers, and logistics operators all experience backlogs in the weeks preceding the holiday. Buyers and distributors also tend to place orders earlier in Q4 to ensure stock is in place before operations slow. Any exporter planning a first shipment or a promotional push timed to the pre-CNY gifting season needs to work backwards from the holiday date, not forwards from their own production schedule.
Chinese New Year is also a major gifting occasion. Premium imported food, health products, and beverages with suitable gift packaging are in demand in the lead-up to the holiday. For exporters in these categories, participating in pre-CNY promotional campaigns - through distributors or e-commerce platforms - requires preparation several months in advance.
Golden Week: consumer spending and e-commerce
The National Day Golden Week runs from October 1 to 7. It is one of China's major travel and consumer spending periods. Physical retail sees strong traffic, and e-commerce platforms typically run promotional campaigns around the holiday period. For exporters active in China's consumer market, Golden Week is a useful promotional window, particularly for health products, premium food, and lifestyle goods.
Operationally, Golden Week creates a short logistics pause. Most commercial activity continues during the week, but with some slowdown in business-to-business communication and logistics in the days immediately around the national holiday.
11.11 (Singles' Day): China's largest shopping event
November 11 is the world's largest annual shopping event. Tmall, JD, and other platforms run their major annual promotions around this date, often extending the campaign over several weeks. Total sales across all platforms consistently reach hundreds of billions of yuan in the campaign period.
For NZ and AU exporters active on Chinese e-commerce platforms, 11.11 can be a significant sales opportunity. It can also be demanding. Platform participation in 11.11 campaigns typically requires advance negotiation with the platform, promotional pricing commitments, and sufficient stock in bonded warehouses or Chinese fulfilment centres to meet demand spikes. Brands that participate effectively tend to see volume well above normal, while those that participate without the operational preparation often see fulfilment problems that generate negative reviews.
Planning requirements for 11.11 participation should begin no later than August, and earlier for businesses new to the campaign structure.
618 (June 18): the mid-year shopping festival
JD.com's mid-year shopping festival, centred on June 18, has grown into China's second-largest e-commerce event. Most major platforms now participate. The scale and promotional intensity are lower than 11.11 but still commercially significant for brands that are active on relevant platforms.
Building a practical export calendar
The simplest way to manage China's commercial calendar is to map the key dates at the start of each year and work backwards from them. For physical goods exporters, the questions to answer are: when does stock need to be in-market for each major promotional or gifting occasion, and when does it need to be shipped from New Zealand or Australia to meet that timing? For e-commerce-active exporters, the additional question is which platform campaigns are worth participating in, and what lead time is needed to commit product, negotiate terms, and prepare promotional materials.
The full commercial calendar: month by month
Planning around China's commercial calendar is most effective when done at the annual level, mapping every relevant event and working backwards from each to determine what needs to be prepared, shipped, and in place.
January - February: Chinese New Year. The most operationally significant event for physical goods exporters. Factory, logistics, and commercial operations slow substantially for one to three weeks, with effects extending further as workers travel home before and return after the holiday. For exporters planning pre-CNY gifting campaigns - premium food, health products, and beverages with suitable gift packaging are in demand in the lead-up - distributor orders need to be placed and stock in China by mid-January for late-January CNY dates. Shipments from NZ or Australia need to leave port by early December for February CNY dates, accounting for transit time, customs clearance, and domestic logistics.
March - April: Qingming Festival. Falling in early April, Qingming is primarily associated with ancestor remembrance rather than commercial consumption. It creates a brief logistics pause. More commercially relevant for NZ fresh produce exporters is the spring season window: apple and kiwifruit shipments to China operate in a window where the arrival of new season product is commercially significant.
May: Labour Day Golden Week. China's Labour Day holiday, typically extending three to five days around May 1, generates meaningful consumer spending in food, lifestyle, and health categories. E-commerce platforms run promotional campaigns, making Labour Day a useful secondary promotional window for brands active on platforms.
June: Dragon Boat Festival and 618. Dragon Boat Festival, typically in June, is a public holiday with increasing commercial relevance as a gifting occasion. More significant for exporters active on e-commerce platforms is JD.com's 618 shopping festival, now a multi-platform event second in scale only to 11.11. Brands participating in 618 need committed promotional terms, bonded stock, and prepared content by April to take full advantage of the campaign window.
August - September: Mid-Autumn Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival, typically falling in September or early October, is one of China's most important gifting occasions. Premium imported food, health products, beverages, and personal care items positioned as gifts see elevated demand in the lead-up. For NZ and AU exporters in gift-relevant categories, production and dispatch from New Zealand or Australia in the summer months is needed to ensure stock is in China by August for September gifting distribution.
October: National Day Golden Week. The first week of October is a national holiday with strong consumer spending in travel, dining, and lifestyle. E-commerce platforms may run short promotional bursts during this period.
November: 11.11 Singles' Day. China's largest shopping event. For exporters active on Tmall, JD, or Douyin, this is typically the most commercially significant single event of the year. Preparation should begin no later than August, with bonded warehouse stock planning beginning in September or earlier for high-volume categories. Brands that participate in 11.11 effectively tend to see volume well above normal; brands that participate without operational preparation face fulfilment problems that generate the negative reviews that are hardest to recover from.
December: Double 12. December 12 is a secondary shopping festival operating at lower intensity than 11.11, with participation from the same major platforms. The year-end period also sees gifting activity and platform campaigns as the December-to-January cycle leads into Chinese New Year preparation.
Building shipping lead times around key dates
The most practical way to use this calendar is to work backwards from each major event to determine when physical goods need to leave NZ or Australia.
A standard container shipment from NZ or Australia to a major Chinese port takes fourteen to twenty-one days in transit. Add three to seven days for customs clearance and inspection, and a further three to five days for domestic logistics to a bonded warehouse or distribution centre, and the total lead time from shipment origin to Chinese distribution is typically four to six weeks for most NZ and AU exporters.
For pre-CNY stock needing to arrive by January 15, goods need to leave port by mid-December - meaning production completion and freight booking should be confirmed by late November. For 11.11 bonded warehouse stock, products need to be in the warehouse by mid-October, requiring dispatch from NZ or AU by mid-September. For Mid-Autumn Festival gifting stock needed in August, dispatch should happen by late June.
Working backwards from these fixed commercial dates - rather than planning forward from the domestic production schedule - is the most reliable way to avoid the missed-window problem that catches many first-time and even returning exporters off guard. The consequence of a missed commercial window in China is rarely just a lost quarter. It is often a lost season's sales plus the commercial relationship cost of a disappointed distributor or buyer.
Building a rolling export calendar
The most useful practical output of calendar planning is a rolling twelve-month export calendar built around China's commercial dates rather than the domestic production or financial calendar. This calendar should show, for each key commercial event, the latest safe dispatch date, the product arrival deadline, the distributor stocking deadline, and the promotional activation window. Maintained and updated each quarter, it becomes a shared planning tool between the exporter and the distributor - reducing the coordination breakdowns that cause missed windows, and giving both parties the forward visibility they need to commit promotional spend and shelf space with confidence.