Holiday Madness

This week is National Day, the annual holiday celebrating the PRC's (People's Republic of China) nationhood. I don't know exactly how people celebrate the holiday other than the week they get off work. As far as I can tell there isn't much national or patriotic feeling - mostly people are just glad to have an all-too-rare break from work. As far as I can tell, most Chinese businesses give their employees a one week holiday at National Day, a one week holiday at Chinese New Year (late January or early February) and one day off for mid-Autumn festival. Chinese employees may get some discretionary time off but usually it is quite limited. Time off here makes the 2-3 weeks of paid vacation plus 10-12 company holidays I'm used to in the US seem quite generous (not to mention the 5+ weeks of vacatioon and many holidays most Europeans get!). Not only is the time off so limited (and inflexible), the week-long break for National Day isn't really a week-long break. In order to have 7 consecutive days off (five business days plus a weekend), Chinese employees are required to work the preceding weekend so the advertised 5-day holiday really only amounts to three days off. Thank goodness I'm not Chinese! Lucky for me, my employer grants expats flexible leave time so we can work through Chinese holidays (and not on weekends!) and take time off to celebrate our own holidays (or at other times as we choose).