After months of speculation, the Chinese government will overhaul its national holiday system. One of the three compulsory three-day ‘Golden Week’ holidays, at the beginning of May, has been cancelled.
The May Day holiday will be cut to one day, while the Tomb-sweeping
Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival will become
additional national vacations.
The draft holiday proposal has been posted on the Internet for public
discussion, and is expected to be enacted in time for the 2008 Spring
Festival. The new law will raise the number of paid holiday days to 11
from 10, according to state media.
The Spring Festival break will begin on Lunar New Year's Eve instead of
the first day of the Chinese New Year, and will end a day earlier, the
draft says.
China introduced the Golden Week holidays in 1999 to boost domestic
consumption, but the sheer volume of domestic travellers moving around
the country during the three holidays put an unbearable strain on
transport systems and tourism facilities. Voluminous complaints about
overcrowding, poor service, a scarcity of hotel rooms and damage to
scenic spots, especially historic sites, during the Golden Week breaks
influenced the new policy announcement.
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