Let's restore 7-day holidays

It's high time to resume the seven-day May Day holiday to spur domestic consumption and give people complete rest amid the global financial crisis, says an article in Modern Express. The following is an excerpt:

Shi Jiang, a deputy to Sichuan provincial people's congress, suggested recently that the three-day May Day holiday should be increased to seven days. A survey showed that 70 percent people interviewed supported his suggestion.

Last year, China adjusted its holiday calender, cutting off four days from the original seven-day May Day holiday, and replacing them with three three-day holidays to mark traditional Chinese festivals - the Tomb Sweeping Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid Autumn Festival. On the surface, Chinese have begun to get more days of rest, but in fact four three-day holidays can't equal one seven-day holiday - people still couldn't get complete rest and the tourism industry also suffered a decline.

Some experts have said China should step up the implementation of paid vacations in the face of the problems of short holidays. But the regulations on paid vacations for employees, which became effective since the first day of this year, have not yet been effectively carried out. Few employees would get paid vacations amid the ongoing financial crisis.

As early as 1999 when China kicked off the May Day and National Day golden week holidays, one of the purposes was to spur domestic consumption. China overcame the 1997 Asian financial crisis partly because of the two seven-day holidays. If the resumption of seven-day May Day holiday can stimulate consumption and guarantee people's rights to rest, we should as well embrace it.

(China Daily 01/20/2009 page8)