A source of light

There seems to still be some confusion about the new Chinese national holiday dates.

Chinese holidays run differently from the West in that the weekend preceding or following (generally preceding) a holiday is a work day. The two weekend break days are then combined with the holiday break; thus, adding two extra days to each holiday resulting in two five-day holidays and five three-day holidays.

The original dates given count the two extra days; however, remember that the weekend before or after (generally before) is still a work and school day.

This system is invariably confusing to westerners in China.

Below is the latest list of official required holidays, which we have sourced from published central government materials:

Western New Year (Yuandan)
1 day vacation (1-Jan-2008)

Chinese New Year (Chunjie)
3 days vacation (6-Feb-2008 to 8-Feb-2008)

Grave Sweeping Day (Qingmingjie)
1 day vacation (4-Apr-2008

International Socialist Workers’ Day (Wuyi/Laodongjie)
1 day vacation (May-1-2008)

Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwujie)
1 day vacation (June-8-2008)

Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiujie)
1 day vacation (Sep-14-2008)

China National Day (Shiyi/Guoqingjie)
3 days vacation (Oct-1-2008 to Oct-3-2008)

According to the new Chinese labour law, whether or not an employer shifts the weekend break to the holiday break and which days and which weekend are all up to the employer’s discretion. However, the days listed before are the days recommended by the government and the schedule all schools in the country will follow (with the exception of the New Year where the government made a sudden change in the school break dates to Dec 31, Jan 1, 2).

After years of speculation, China’s central government has decreed that the national public holiday schedule is to be reformed from calendar year 2008. A call for public comment on a proposed schedule was made some weeks back, and although there has been no official announcement as to the results (yet), we have it on good authority that the following schedule will apply, nationwide and for all people, from January 1st, 2008:

Western New Year
3 days vacation (1-Jan-2008 through 3-Jan-2008)

Chinese New Year (aka “Spring Festival”)
7 days vacation (6-Feb-2008 through 12-Feb-2008)

Grave Sweeping Day
3 days vacation (4-Apr-2008 through 6-Apr-2008)

International Socialist Workers’ Day (aka “May Day”)
3 days vacation (1-May-2008 through 3-May-2008)

Dragon Boat Festival
3 days vacation (8-Jun-2008 through 10-Jun-2008)

Mid-Autumn Festival
3 days vacation (14-Sep-2008 through 16-Sep-2008)

China National Day
7 days vacation (1-Oct-2008 through 7-Oct-2008)

Certain pundits have been predicting full flexibility of vacation time for workers. It seems that as fast as China is reforming, the national economy is not quite ready for such a move, as yet.