HONG KONG - China's three "Golden Week"
holidays: Lunar Chinese New Year, May 1 Labor Day
and the October National Day, are a nationally
sanctioned financial plum for the tourism industry
at home and abroad. During each of these week-long
holidays, trips made Chinese in the mainland and
to Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asian countries
number in the hundreds of millions.
Now
Beijing is considering drastically shortening one
of the holidays - the Labor Day holiday, a move
that would undoubtedly
be a
blow to regional tourism, as well as family
reunion plans. In effect one of the Golden Week
holidays would become a "Golden Day", though
without the glow, so perhaps "Brass Day" might be
more apt for the revamped China's International
Labor Day holiday. To make up for it, however, the
central government looks as if it will add three
traditional Chinese festival days to its list of
statutory holidays.
Indeed, when Beijing
put the proposal out for public consideration on
the Internet, not only the tourism industry but
the general populace were strongly opposed to it.
But despite the opposition, it is believed Beijing
will go ahead with its plan.
The three
Golden Week holidays, first introduced in 1999 as
a way to stimulate domestic consumption, have
increasingly come under fire for straining China's
transport and tourism resources.
During
last month's National Day holiday, 146 million
Chinese travelled domestically, generating 64.2
billion yuan (US$8.6 billion) in tourism revenue.
A record 179 million Chinese holidaymakers were on
the move during the Labor Day celebrations this
year.
However, the millions of
holidaymakers have added great pressure to the
transport infrastructure and popular tourist
destinations in the form of traffic accidents and
fatalities, lowered service quality, jacked-up
prices and, of course, pollution.
During
this year's Labor Day holiday, visitors reportedly
dumped about 20.9 tonnes of rubbish in Beijing's
Tiananmen Square every day - about nine times the
daily average.
Frustrated at having to
endure poor traffic and huge crowds every Golden
Week, more mainlanders are opting to stay at home.
This has aroused criticism among retail and travel
sectors that the holidays are becoming
increasingly counter-productive at encouraging
spending.
The Chinese government on
November 9 announced its draft proposal to reform
the three week-long holidays.
The
proposal, drafted by the National Development and
Reform Commission (NDRC), suggested shortening the
May 1 Golden Week from three statutory days (plus
a weekend) to one statutory day. In exchange,
three traditional festivals - the Ching Ming
Festival (Grave-sweeping Day), Chong Yang Festival
and Mid-autumn (Moon) Festival - would become
statutory holidays. That in fact would increase
the total number of statutory holidays in a year
to 11 from 10.
The NDRC conducted a
massive online poll on the supposedly popular
proposal on official and popular portal websites
such as People.com.cn, Xinhuanet.com and
Sina.com.cn along with a questionnaire.
Also open for public consultation was a
plan to give workers paid annual leave after
working for the same employer for 12 months. Most
mainland workers do not enjoy paid leave and rely
on the Golden Weeks for a break from work.
The feedback period ended on November 15
and the new holiday calendar was expected to be
implemented as early as next year.
However, a brief look at some online
responses to the proposal indicated that a
majority of people are opposed to shortening the
Labor Day Golden Week.
An Internet user,
who did not identify himself, said at the forum of
Xinhuanet.com on November 11 that he was strongly
against the cancelation of the Golden Week in May.
"My colleagues and I, together with our
families, disagree changing the long-week holiday.
First, [the proposal] denies people, who work far
away from their families, a chance for reunions.
Second, the implementation of annual paid leave
can hardly be ensured as employers usually attach
importance to production. Third, the Lunar New
Year holiday is proposed to begin on Lunar New
Year's Eve instead of the first day of the Lunar
New Year and end a day earlier, it would shorten
the break, as currently people do not work on
Lunar New Year's Eve ..." he said.
Many of
the netizens at the forum of Xinhuanet.com said on
November 11 that they believed the government
should keep the Golden Week break in May and at
the same time introduce the three traditional
Chinese festivals as national holidays.
One netizen using the name of "Mountain
and Water" said at the chat room of Sina.com.cn on
November 13 that "it's better to keep the Golden
Week because all employers are forced to abide by
the law by giving their men a break".
Another posting by "Lee" said at the
Sina.com.cn on November 14 that migrant workers
will be the most affected as they will be forced
to stay at their workplaces instead of going back
their hometowns if the Golden Week holidays are
spread out and replaced by individual holidays.
In addition to criticism of supposedly
popular holiday adjustment, some even questioned
the questionnaire's design, saying it has showed
misleading results.
Tang Jun, senior
researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, was quoted as saying by China Youth
Daily that there were some noticeable flaws in the
survey's methodology.
He said the survey
could result in insufficient representation as the
country's migrant workers, the most hard hit, who
hardly have personal computers or are able express
their views at Internet cafes.
"[Under the
new proposal] they cannot go home in May when they
are needed most at harvest time," he said.
Besides, 21 newspapers and one portal
website - rednet.cn, on November 14 jointly sent a
petition to the Legislative Affairs Office of the
State Council, urging it to keep the Labor Day
Golden Week and add three traditional festivals to
the list of legal holidays.
Signed by
influential newspapers such as the Huaxi
Metropolis News and the Yangzi Evening News, the
letter said although workers were entitled to paid
leave under the Labor Law, some enterprises do not
give paid leave because it is not compulsory.
Under the uniform arrangement of the Golden Week
holidays, everyone would have an equal number of
days off. Therefore, they maintained, the May 1
should not be scrapped without the introduction of
compulsory paid leave, or a significant number of
people would be stripped off the right for time
off.
"Those putting forward the shortening
of the week-long holiday recognized the transport
and scenic spot issues [caused by masses of people
traveling during the three week-long holidays],
but they did not recognize the special value for
family reunions or rest," the letter continued.
Despite the huge outcry, conversely some
mainland newspapers reported that 68% of the 1.55
million online participants approved shortening
the Labor Day holiday and compensating for it with
separate traditional festivals.
Huang Tao,
an associate professor of the Renmin University of
China, said the shortening of the May 1 Golden
Week is a foregone conclusion and is expected to
be announced before the next year's Lunar New
Year.
"A majority of people support the
introduction of traditional festivals, but oppose
shortening the May 1 Golden Week," Huang claimed.
"It is a contradiction as the two ideas must be
implemented simultaneously as there isn't economic
support for the co-existence of the two." Huang
took part in formulating the draft proposal.
Zhan Miao, from Mi Luo Jiang city of Hunan
province, who works as secretary in a Shenzhen
computer company, said she supported the spreading
the May 1 holidays about and the addition of more
traditional festivals.
"I don't think
shortening the May 1 Golden Week will place more
pressure on the remaining two Golden Weeks as
people now usually go back their hometowns during
the New Year holidays. Regarding the harvest time,
me, as an example, usually ask my parents to
employ someone to help instead of me going home to
help," she said.
Amy Jiang, business
development manager in Shenzhen, echoed Zhan's
ideas, saying many friends of hers and she
preferred to stay home during the week-long
holidays to avoid travel chaos and have trips in
the days off she decided.
"Though the
initial survey result showed that many oppose the
scrapping of the Labor Day Golden Week, I believe
the central government made the proposal in order
to do it," she said.
Olivia
Chung is a senior Asia Times Online
reporter.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times
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