Call to scrap National Day holiday triggers sparks

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-09 20:14

He noted as the May Day holiday no longer existed many tourists were eyeing the National Day break as the sole chance for extended travel. "We expect the number of tourists will increase by at least 30 percent."

Zheng Hong, board chairman of the Guangzhilu travel agency also in Guangdong, said the golden weeks had boosted the development of the domestic tourism industry. "Everything has a negative side, and you cannot just scrap it because of its defects."

He said the golden weeks gave friends and relatives a chance to reunite.

China earlier issued regulations on paid holidays, saying all employees of government agencies, enterprises and public-service institutions were entitled to paid holidays -- national holidays and weekends not included -- after serving the same employer for one year.

However, a paid holiday is still a relatively new thing to Chinese and many said they wouldn't dare to take such a break under work pressure.

Cai added the best way was to evenly distribute paid vacations and public holidays.

In December, the government officially announced it would shorten the three-day May Day holiday to one day while introducing three new one-day holidays on three traditional festivals.

But it left the three-day National Day holiday and one-day New Year holiday unchanged.

China hoped the reform would uphold the country's traditional culture, make public holidays better distributed and ease overcrowding on the golden weeks.

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