More flexible holidays needed

The news that people would get nine days off for both the Spring Festival holiday and the National Day holiday happily surprised netizens. Although the news has turned out to be false, it reflects the public's hopes that the holiday arrangements should be adjusted, says an article in Qianjiang Evening News. Excerpts:

A recent survey on public holidays conducted by several web portals found that more than 80 percent of the interviewees were "unsatisfied" with the current arrangements. The respondents had three main complaints. Apart from too few holidays, the seven-day National Day was considered too short and too rigid, while working weekends to make up for the lost days broke up the normal working week and made the three-day legal holidays something not to be savored, but wasteful to discard.

Passengers walk out of the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, Oct 7, 2013. China witnessed a travel peak on Monday, as many people were on their return trip on the last day of the seven-day National Day holiday. [Photo / Xinhua]

The relevant departments should give more consideration to people's needs and moderately extend the duration of Spring Festival, the most important traditional holiday, which would not only help people cultivate filial piety and have a good rest at the end of year, but also to some extent reduce the difficulty of traveling during the holiday. Considering the mismatch between the Chinese traditional holidays and the calendar year, any arrangement for the holidays will not satisfy everyone. However, the holidays should cater to the basic demands of as many people as possible, and should guarantee quality leisure time and ease of transportation.

It is important to pay due attention to the message sent in the survey. A longer holiday should be considered to meet citizens' desires to travel. Also the three-day "minor holidays" should be adjusted to maintain the integrity of non-working weekends and people should be given the right to choose days they want off aside from the Spring Festival.

(China Daily 11/07/2013 page9)