Although the People's Republic of China uses the Gregorian calendar for civil purposes, a special Chinese calendar is used for determining festivals. Various Chinese communities around the world also use this calendar. The beginnings of the Chinese calendar can be traced back to the 14th century B.C.E.

Does China use the lunar calendar?

Contrary to what you might expect, the Chinese calendar isn't a lunar calendar. Instead it's lunisolar—meaning that it's based on measurements of the phases of the moon, but also on the position of the sun in the sky. ... The ancient Babylonians, Greeks and Jews all used a variant of this calendar.

Does China use a 12 month calendar?

A 12-month-year using this system has 354 days, which would drift significantly from the tropical year. To fix this, traditional Chinese years have a 13-month year approximately once every three years. ... The synodic month of the Taichu calendar was 2943⁄81 days long.