Hands off our precious Golden Weeks_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Hands off our precious Golden Weeks

If you asked Chinese people what they are most looking forward to or excited about at the moment, I think most would reply: "The National Day Golden Week."

This sounds like a statement of the obvious. Who wouldn't look forward to staying away from work for seven days? But the upcoming National Day holiday does bear some added significance. It has been nine months since people had the last seven-day holiday - the Spring Festival - because the May Day Golden Week in between was cancelled. In addition, there is the danger of losing the National Day Golden Week.

Tsinghua University Professor Cai Jiming, head of the "Project Panel for the Reforming of Holidays", said recently that the National Day Golden Week should also be cancelled "if the conditions are ripe with regard to paid vacations". The panel is believed to be the mastermind behind the government's decision to shorten the seven-day May Day holiday to three days and add three more public holidays related to three other days on the Chinese lunar calendar.

Cai's words evoked a wave of public criticism. All the surveys conducted by China's major Internet portal websites indicated that more than 80 percent of netizens opposed the suggestion. They accused the professor of depriving them of the precious holidays while enjoying two long vacations himself every year.

Cai has defended his idea by blaming the Golden Weeks for causing overcrowding on public transport and at tourist venues. People's need for longer holidays, he said, can be met by popularizing the practice of paid vacations.