China juggles tombs, dragon boats and Marx---from International Herald Tribune

hero1_1985

A Chinese government panel announced plans on Friday to revamp the holiday schedule to re-emphasize traditional festivals at the expense of the Marxist May Day celebration.

The new schedule aims to address the severe overloading of China's air, rail and road links in the first week of May, when virtually the entire country goes on vacation. But gridlock may remain around the two other major holidays — essentially a week each — at the Chinese New Year and in the first week of October.

Government officials, laborers and executives alike try to visit distant family members or vacation destinations during those holidays, frequently producing transportation nightmares.

The panel's plans were posted on the Internet for public comment on Friday and in theory could still be changed. But the official Xinhua news agency said the plan was ready to go into place early next year, suggesting that all relevant government agencies had reached a consensus that is unlikely to be altered.

The plan calls for trimming the May 1 holiday to one working day from three. At the same time, three traditional Chinese festivals will each become one-day public holidays.

The new holidays are Tomb-Sweeping Day in April, the Dragon Boat Festival in June and the Mid-Autumn Festival in September. The dates of the festivals vary on Western calendars, because they are determined by a lunar calendar.

Chinese New Year, usually in late January or early February, and National Day, Oct. 1, will continue as three-day national holidays. They typically expand to seven days through the rearrangement of weekends: if the official holidays fall on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, for example, then Thursday and Friday frequently become holidays as well, while the following Saturday and Sunday become workdays.

Under the new schedule, the first official day of Chinese New Year will also be recalculated to fall one day earlier, making it easier for laborers facing cross-country bus and train rides to reach their families in time for the height of the celebrations.

James Thompson, the chairman of Crown Worldwide Holdings, a major Asian moving company based in Hong Kong, said the current practice of taking nearly weeklong holidays posed severe problems for his industry.

"We actually have to tell our overseas offices to avoid shipping into China during that period," he said. "Everything is shut."

Mao tried to erase many traditional Chinese celebrations, but their popularity has re-emerged as Communist ideology has lost most of its influence in contemporary Chinese society. The Communist Party has increasingly tried to strengthen its position in recent years with nationalistic appeals for people to take pride in China's 5,000-year history and culture.

In many rural areas, tombs are once more decorated with flowers and other tributes on Tomb-Sweeping Day, even though the Communist Party still bans most burials in favor of cremation. The ban on burials, enforced particularly in or near cities, is intended to conserve land and prevent the reappearance of lavish burial ceremonies that sometimes bankrupted even affluent families.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/10/asia/10china.php

xiaozhiwwww

:D
HaHa, sounds good. But where are the holidays gone?

Does anyone have a chance to take flexible holidays?

zye

I'd prefer to add some traditional holiday while keep the own ones~

the more the better~~

xiaozhiwwww

:D :D

HOW ABOUT RETIRE YOUNG. I KNOW A FRIEND OF MINE WORKS 120 HOURS PER WEEK. AND SHE COULD RETIER AT AGE 35.

zye

Sounds impossible for me as I was a lazy bone~

xiaozhiwwww

;P ;P
:lol :lol IT IS HARD.