China has a habit of introducing holidays last minute and here is the latest.

In order to alleviate transportation pressure during Shanghai World Expo opening ceremony, Shanghai government announced that April 30 and May 4 will be official leave for Shanghai. The extra two days leave will be treated as weekend.  Overtime payment or additional leave should be arranged accordingly if you require employees to work in these two days.  5 days vacation only applies for Shanghai area.

This time of the year is a very critical time for Buying offices in China with the Canton fair and other shows like the HK gifts show on at that time.   Many of our buyers will also use this opportunity to visit Shanghai suppliers and their merchandisers in the ODM Shanghai office.  We are now rebooking schedules according to client needs.   Our Shanghai office will probably continue to operate at reduced staffing levels over this period.

The 2010 International Labour Day holidays for the rest of China are unchanged from May 1st (Saturday) ~ May 3rd (Monday).

Due to the World Expo we would also recommend our clients to apply for China visas early to avoid any potential delays later.