When markets are off / What is the best time to come to China to buy furniture?

In this article we tried our best to answer the most common question our customer asked us about markets’ working time and how do holidays affect clients and their orders.

Business hours

All the markets are opened from 9:00 to 18:00 Monday to Sunday but some shops tend to start a bit later, come by 10:00 and all of them will be working.

Sometimes if clients are still on the site they do prolong their hours until everything is fixed. It happens a lot in kitchen showrooms: it takes at least an hour to make a kitchen project (middle to big size) in AutoCAD and hours and hours just choosing materials: cabinets quality, glass or no glass, fittings of different brands, dozens of catalogs of colors to select from. If the project of the kitchen you’re shopping for is quite big, do find one full day for a kitchen, wardrobes, pantry etc.

Do markets work during Christmas and New Year?

Markets do work during Christian holidays, in fact, it’s a perfect time to travel to China.

Although there are lots of Christmas parties in China, it is not celebrated officially in China and is not a public holiday. New Year, on the other hand, gets full 3 days off but the service industry never rests during these 3 days. Please do not pity the sales managers in showrooms, the Western New Year was never a big holiday in China. New year ( 新年) in Chinese understanding is Chinese New Year. In fact, the holiday we all call New Year is called YuanDan (元旦) in China and literally means the first day of the solar (Gregorian) calendar.

Many customers from all over the world come in Christmas holidays specifically: they avoid wasting time off work, save money buying furniture in China, travel to another country and see a new culture.

When markets are closed?

Markets are off only during the Chinese New Year holidays. CNY is the most important holiday in China and for its scale and importance can be only compared to Christmas in Western Countries. The tricky thing that dates change every year (if you look at the solar Gregorian calendar), it is the same date according to the lunar calendar that is used for Chinese traditional holidays. There are official 7 days off which every vendor has to provide to their employees. However, Chinese New Year holidays in Foshan furniture markets are about 3 weeks long. First, one week is mandatory, second employees in showrooms work all year round and lots of them are not local which make this holiday the only time to go back to hometown and visit the family.

There are no fixed dates how many days before and after the CNY itself showrooms have. It is all very vague until about a month or 2 weeks prior to the holiday because vendors select the dates by themselves. It’s also the reason why all the shops have different dates for Chinese New Year holidays.

What about factories?

Factories are off on Chinese public holidays which means delaying production and shipping time. If factories are responsible for production then furniture markets are sales representatives for the factories. In order to get more clients, sales work whole years round apart from Chinese new year. Factories workers, on the other hand, all the public holidays off. Which means every public holiday there are more sales due to Chinese coming from all Chinese to Foshan for furniture but factory won’t start the production on the day of the public holidays.

And remember when placing an order just before holidays: markets are still working, but factories not only will not start the production but probably already closed till after the holidays.

We’ve collected information about all the China public holidays in 2019 for your convenience.

Try planning the trip for furniture sourcing in China as far as possible from major public holidays. Markets get crowded and production doesn’t start right away.  

Furniture sourcing managers have a flexible schedule and adopt their time to clients’ needs.

If you’re coming over weekends, during holidays or having a very late arrival, our managers meet you at the airport or arrange the car to pick you up and send safe and sound to the hotel you’ve booked.

To book furniture sourcing tour to China and ask any questions related to it, don’t hesitate and contact us.