China, as well as all modern countries, currently uses the Gregorian calendar as its contemporary calendar.
The traditional Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar (moon-based / sun-based) and began in 2600 BC making it the oldest calendar in the world. The traditional Chinese calendar does not keep in step with the Gregorian calendar and it changes its “year” around late January to mid-February. For example, the year 2020 is the year of the rat, which began on January 25th.

As if that’s not complicated enough, there are other details of the traditional Chinese calendar. (Astrologers usually utilize this information but it is nonetheless another part of the calendar.)

The Chinese further subdivided their calendar based on what they considered the five elements and each of these elements was given a “yin” or “yang” designation, creating a 10 year pattern. (see graphic below).

This table combined with the previous table creates a repeating 60 year pattern.
So, the year 2020 (and 1960) is the year of the Yang Metal Rat
and the year 2013 (and 1953) is the year of the Yin Water Snake.

Directly below are the combined tables.
(Yes, this is just one table but we divided it into 3 sections for easier reading.)