No More Golden Weeks in May
The photo (left) was taken at the entrance to the Forbidden City on May 3 this year, a day on which 114,800 people visited the former Imperial Palace. One of the new laws that China’s hard-working State Council spent Sunday passing has reduced the likelihood of such a huge number of people visiting the Palace at the same time next year. The new law, which goes into effect on Jan 1, 2008, will see the shortening of one of the golden weeks and the addition of three new traditional Chinese festivals (Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon-Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival) to the list of official holidays. The implementation of the law will also see the number of official holidays increase from 10 to 11 every year.
The 11 days are split up in the following way:
New Years Day: Jan 1 (1 day)
Spring Festival (Chun Jie): Feb 6-8 (3 days) In the past the Spring Festival holidays started on the actual day of the Spring Festival (Chuyi) and ran through until the third day of the festival (Chusan). From next year, the holidays will begin on Spring Festival Eve (Chuxi) and run through until the second day of the festival.
Tomb-Sweeping Day (Qing Ming Jie): April 5 (1 day)
May Day: May 1 (1 day)
Dragon-Boat Festival (Duan Wu Jie): June 8 (1 day)
Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu Jie): September 14 (1 day)
National Holidays (Guoqing Jie): Oct 1-3 (3 day)
As with current practice, if any of these holidays happen to fall on the weekend, the holiday will be made up on the next working day.
The law also makes it official that women receive a half-day holiday on March 8’s International Women’s Day (Funu Jie), youth older than 14 get half a day off on May 4 on Youth Day (Qingnian Jie), the under 14s are spoiled with a full-day off on June 6 for Children’s Day (Ertong Jie), while members of the PLA get a half-day off on August 1. In addition, some of the national minorities are able to determine their own holidays in accordance with their own traditional festivals.
Links and Sources:
People's Daily: Holidaymakers crowd scenic spots (image)
Reuters: China scraps one of three Golden Week holidays
Xinhua: Expert: China's new holiday plan unlikely to have major changes
The Beijing News: 明年全民假日确定11天
Answers.com: Golden Week