China's Public Holidays Overhaul Approved By Majority Of Poll Respondents

Sources: Xinhua, The China Daily, and China public holidays. As we reported immediately, on November 9, the Chinese government released a draft plan to overhaul its public holidays system, and opened 5 public forae where people could vote for or against the proposed changes. Yesterday, after the week of online polling came to an end, the final results were released, showing a general approval rating of 60 percent for the proposed changes.

According to http://www.sina.com/, the site which drew the largest number of voters (590,000):

• 88 percent agreed with increasing the number of public holidays from 10 to 11 (this is a surprise!).
• 62 percent agreed with making three traditional festivals (Ching Ming, Tuen Ng, and the Mid-Autumn Festival) into public holidays.
• 81 percent agreed with retaining the Golden Weeks of the Spring Festival and the National Day.
• 79 percent agreed with starting the Spring Festival holiday on day earlier. on Lunar New Year's Eve.

The online polling initiative was generally well-received, though one recurring complaint was that the surveys did not ask if people agreed with the cancellation of the May Day holiday.

The change thus seems almost certain of coming into being, starting in 2008. The one last uncertainty being the date on which the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday will be set. As that festival's highlight is a big evening family meal, the corresponding public holiday is sometimes set to the day after, so that people have a public holiday to recuperate from the feast (this is the case in Hong Kong, for example, but not in Taiwan).