Sources & methodology
A little context behind the answers.
Where our dates come from, how the tools work, and what still needs a human eye.
- Calendar reference: Hong Kong Observatory
Gregorian–Lunar Calendar Conversion Tables, 1901–2100. Official tables are used as an independent check of our date calculations. They also describe possible one-day changes in far-future lunar dates.
- Monthly calendar and traditional almanac
Festival dates follow the same local lunar table as the converter. Leap months do not repeat fixed lunar festivals; Lunar New Year’s Eve is the final day of the lunar year. Qingming follows its solar term. The monthly view calculates festivals across the full supported range, separately from the curated annual festival guides.
Solar terms, day guardians and activity lists are calculated locally with lunar-typescript 1.8.6. The 吉 marker uses the twelve-guardian huángdào classification. Activity lists use the library’s default convention (sect 1); their month changes on a solar-term boundary. They are presented as traditional customs, with short English glosses alongside the original Chinese. Almanac traditions vary and do not predict outcomes. The Hong Kong Observatory checks apply to calendar dates, not these almanac interpretations.
- Local calculation: lunar-typescript 1.8.6
The MIT-licensed lunar-typescript project generates the bundled lunar month table. The browser uses this local table rather than calling a calendar API. Conversion accepts Gregorian dates from January 1, 1901 to December 31, 2100.
- Spring Festival: UNESCO
Spring festival, social practices of the Chinese people in celebration of traditional new year provides cultural context for reunion, greetings and regional practices. Our descriptions are original summaries; traditions vary by family and community.
- Ethnic and regional festivals: living traditions
The festival guide links each introduction to its own sources, including theChina Intangible Cultural Heritage website, local cultural authorities and community histories. Summaries describe the named communities; they do not imply that everyone in an ethnic group observes the same customs.
Cultural timing is kept separate from verified annual dates. Community calendars, seasonal ranges and locally chosen dates are not converted into a single nationwide event. Check the organizer’s current announcement for travel. Sources were consulted on October 9, 2026; these introductions still welcome community review.
Explore ethnic & regional celebrations → - Zodiac guide: calendar cycles and cultural stories
The animal year tables use the same local dates as the birthday calculator. TheHong Kong Observatory’s stem-branch referenceexplains the sixty-year cycle.China Highlightsinformed the guide’s features and race-story summary;TravelChinaGuideis the reference for the four groups and opposing signs. Pairings are folklore, not relationship scores, predictions or a complete astrology chart. Storytelling varies.
- Language and character reference: MDBG / CC-CEDICT
MDBG Chinese dictionary and the CC-CEDICT project are reference points for word and character readings. Names and example sentences here are original editorial drafts, not a copied dictionary dataset. A dictionary cannot validate the suitability of a complete personal name.
- Audio: local synthetic Mandarin
The 51 bundled examples were generated with eSpeak NG 1.52.0, using its Mandarin voice. They are synthetic, not recordings of a human speaker. The project retains an audio manifest with text, file names and pending review status. Production release requires checking pronunciation and replacing inadequate samples.
- Illustrations and fonts
The two original ink-style illustrations were generated with Codex image generation for this project. They are decorative interpretations, not documentary photographs. Literata and Manrope are self-hosted open-source fonts; license notices accompany the project.
Festival images
The 26 images in the festival guide were created with Codex image generation on October 9, 2026. Each image has its own scene description, informed by the cultural topics in the accompanying article. They are photorealistic illustrations, not documentary photographs or evidence of a particular ceremony, person or place.
Images are stored locally for offline use. Original files and generation prompts are retained in the project. The images have not received a community-led review of clothing, objects or ritual details; the written cultural sources remain the reference for those traditions.
China travel: sources & updates
Our China travel guides cover mainland China. The 2026 days-off periods and make-up workdays follow the State Council holiday notice, cross-checked against the Beijing government’s English summary. These are separate from traditional festival dates.
As of October 9, 2026, this edition has no verified 2027 public holiday schedule. The date checker marks every unsupported year as unverified, including the unsupported part of a cross-year trip. A year is added only after its official notice is checked.
Entry guidance links to the National Immigration Administration. Payments, SIM cards, registration and emergency numbers refer to the official practical guide and payment guide; rail bookings link to China Railway 12306. The older practical guide is not used to determine current visa-free eligibility.
Each destination lists official tourism, attraction or UNESCO sources. Suggested stays, day-by-day routes, seasons, neighborhoods and crowd labels are our editorial recommendations, not official forecasts or live availability. We do not retrieve fares, estimate guaranteed savings or sell tours. Confirm current entry rules, tickets, weather and transport before booking; downloaded copies retain their review date.
Our calendar conventions
“Today” uses UTC+8. Entered dates are treated as calendar dates and never shifted to match the visitor’s time zone. The zodiac year begins at Lunar New Year. The year element follows the heavenly stem, not the separate nà yīn system or a full birth chart.
Checking and corrections
Automated tests check valid dates, invalid inputs, leap months, date boundaries and round-trip conversion. The project’s verification record distinguishes those checks from independent source comparison and human content review.
Source consultation and editorial draft date: October 9, 2026. Future curated annual festival guides must be added explicitly. The site does not infer official public holidays from traditional festival dates.