撤銷假日辦 (che xiao jia ri ban): Closing down of 'holiday office'

The shutters have come down on the "holiday office", or the department that for 14 years fixed public holidays. Its functions will now be jointly shared by several departments, including the National Tourism Administration and the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China.

The "shutting down" of the "holiday office" has been greeted by a lot of sarcasm on the Internet because the holiday arrangements, despite being updated almost every year, have always created problems for and generated complaints from the public.

China has 11 designated holidays, fewer than the world average of 11.7. And since employees in many companies did not get to enjoy all the holidays, the "holiday office" fixed holidays in clusters, or the seven-day "Golden Weeks", to ensure employees in every sector could travel back home and spend some days in a year with their families and dear ones. But the arrangement created huge pressure on long-distance transportation systems and tourist destinations. The uniform mandatory holidays, however, can no longer serve the need of people who prefer making their own vacation plans. It's another matter that the regulation for mandatory paid holidays, which went into effect in 2008, has not been implemented properly.

According to China's green book on leisure activities, 33.1 percent of the Beijing residents who were surveyed said they did not get to take all the paid holidays in 2010 and 2011.

So, the closing down of the "holiday office" marks a step forward in ensuring that employees get to enjoy their entitled holidays because the departments responsible for fixing the public holidays have taken steps to compel all employers to grant their staff the minimum number of paid holidays. The State Council, China's cabinet, issued a document in August emphasizing that the "Golden Week" will give way to flexible, shorter paid holidays.

People should make their travel decisions according to the law of demand and supply. Under the uniform holiday arrangement, the growth of the tourism industry, despite seeing a surge within a few days, is not driven by market demands. So with the shutting down of the "holiday office", the tourism industry is expected to grow more healthily.