May 1st is Chinese Labor Day. Actually, May 1st is International Labor Day, as it is an official holiday in over 80 countries. Until 2008, this was once one of three “Golden Weeks” in China, along with the Spring Festival and National Holiday. At that time, the government thought it would be a good idea to have three week-long holidays to encourage domestic travel and spending. However, the policy did not achieve the desired results, and they actually found the long holidays to be more of an economic drain than anything. As a result, the Labor Day was reduced to a one-day holiday, and three additional national holidays were added – the Tomb Sweeping, Dragon Boat, and Mid-Autumn Festivals. This new calendar was adopted in hopes of restoring some ancient Chinese traditions while preventing overcrowding during the long holidays.

 

Actually, the entire holiday system of China is quite befuddling to an outsider, and I (along with every other foreigner I know who lives and works here) get frustrated and confused around the holidays. Let me try to explain it to you in a simplistic way by using this year’s Labor Day as an example:

 

The actual national holiday is Wednesday, May 1st, and most people are off on that day.

To make it a 3-day weekend instead of a one-day holiday in the middle of the week, most people were also off yesterday on the 29th and today on the 30th.

 

In order to get Monday and Tuesday off this week, most people worked this past Saturday and Sunday.

 

If that sounds a bit stupid to you, that’s because it is. People just finished a 7-day workweek, and then they get three days off in a row before going back to work for two and then having a normal weekend. There’s no such thing as a normal three or four-day weekend here in the Middle Kingdom. That has taken some getting used to here as an American who grew up accustomed to such weekends for Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. After working for seven days in a row, you’d think that a lot of people would be stoked about the chance to get three days off, relax, and possibly get out of town. Think again. Traveling during May Day is still complete chaos, as I can attest to from my hotel room in Dalian, a coastal city in the Northeast region of China. Plane, train, and bus tickets are all hard to come by this time of year, hotels jack up their prices, and tourist destinations are packed to the brim with people. So much for a relaxing holiday!

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