It was a big deal, I guess, when a few years back May Holiday was extended from 3 to 7 days. What a great thing for the government to do, right? Let's take a look at this year's May holiday schedule to see:
May Holiday began Monday, May 1. Happy Workers Day: take seven days off. However, work didn't end Friday as usual, but continued into Saturday and Sunday, right to the end of April. Monday was literally day 1 of the holiday. I picked up Scott and Jaime Saturday afternoon after teaching that morning, for example. I taught today's classes actually, the following Thursdays--if that makes sense. (I had Sunday off; Chinese people didn't. It was tomorrow.) So, holiday began Monday and goes for the following seven days. People have off work, students have off school, and stores, shops, and markets remain open. The idea is to get people to spend money, basically. Chinese sociliasm at its finest: celebrate the workers by spending lots of kuai.
Classes and work and all normal activity will resume on Monday, which means over a course of 14 days, we'll have worked 7 and had 7 off. Over a course of a normal 14 days, you work 10 and have 4 off. Which means you really just get 3 days off. Which is exactly what May holiday always used to be. Hmm, very interesting... That's China for ya.
Here are some photos from Scott and Jaime's visit thus far:
That picture of me is at the Alpine Slide at the Great Wall: the coolest thing in China. Really. Awesome. I'm about to go for the ride of my life. The others are Scott and Jaime on top of the wall and in front of some colorful Chinese building. They're loving the food and Jaime's especially loving the cute Chinese kids (and their split plants). We've been to Sweater Cuts more than once and to hot pot, so you really can't go wrong there.
No comments:
Post a Comment