When will Chinese holiday be real holiday?

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail People's Daily online, October 10, 2013
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Tourists visit the giant yellow rubber duck, brainchild of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, at the Summer Palace in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 3, 2013, also the third day of the seven-day National Day holiday. [Xinhua/Liang Zhiqiang]

Tourists visit the giant yellow rubber duck, brainchild of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, at the Summer Palace in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 3, 2013, also the third day of the seven-day National Day holiday. [Xinhua/Liang Zhiqiang]

A weeklong Chinese national holiday, also known as Golden Week, has just ended on Monday, but many Chinese complained that it is very difficult to head back to work after the holiday.

National Holiday from October 1 to October 3 is legal holiday in China; in order to make a longer break for Chinese workers, the government takes extra two days off, and plus a weekend Sunday and Saturday, so Chinese people can have a seven-day holiday.

The government’s original intention is to give a benefit to Chinese workers. With seven days, they could have enough time to go outside. People can take this opportunity to travel, to go back to home town, to dine out or go shopping. If people are able to take their annual leave, their holiday will be much longer. The seven-day holiday also helps create a favorable condition for holiday economic growth.

But many Chinese say the holiday arrangement just sounds good because the rescheduled calendar is especially puzzling.

Coincidentally, Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is just prior to the National Day Holiday, the government also extended the holiday to three days by rescheduling. As a result, people had to work in weekend before and after the holiday. So from September 16, people worked for three days, and then took three days off; then they worked for six days and had one day off; once again, worked for two days then welcomed the seven-day holiday. This week, people will work another five days from Tuesday and have only one day off before resuming regular schedule from next week.

Some people complained that they became less efficient after the long break. Moreover, during the long holiday, people’s desire to travel had unexpectedly caused a mess in many tourism spots. Some said their holiday was not qualified, and the “Golden week” had turned into “Golden mess”.

What people expect is a high-quality holiday. Messy holiday urged an improved holiday system. How to schedule a long holiday and avoid public unsatisfied sentiment should be studied, and the procedure of calendar rearrangement should be made transparent .

To practice and detail the paid annual leave is another way to help improve the quality of holiday. Chinese workers can take paid annual leave at a fixable time to avoid travel peak during public holiday.

The government needs to improve holiday system and implement policy so that people can really enjoy their holiday.

 

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