CRI听力：China Scrap One "Golden Week"

The Chinese government on Sunday officially announced the scrapping of one of the country's three "golden week" holidays and introduced three new one-day public holidays.

The new national public holiday plan adds three traditional festivals -- Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon-boat Festival and Mid Autumn Festival -- to the list of public holidays.

The plan, which comes into effect on Jan. 1, also increases the total number of national holidays from 10 to 11 days. CRI reporter Yao Yongmei has the details.

Reporter: Each of the three traditional festivals will be a one-day holiday, according to the plan unveiled by the State Council, or China's cabinet.

The Spring Festival remains a three-day public holiday, but it will start one day earlier from the eve of the Lunar New Year, China's most important traditional festival.

The May Day holiday is shortened from three days to one day, while the three-day National Day holiday and one-day New Year holiday remain unchanged.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, which drafted and solicit many rounds of public opinions on the revision of public holidays, the new plan would uphold Chinese traditions, make public holidays better distributed and, with more people traveling on new public and paid holidays, ease overcrowding on the golden weeks.

The three week-long holidays -- Spring Festival, May Day holiday and National Day holiday -- were introduced in 1999 to boost domestic demand amid efforts to promote China's economic growth.

But hundreds of millions of Chinese traveling at the same time made transport and tourist destinations very crowded, making these holidays far from an enjoyable experience.

Many netizens have complained that the revised May Day holiday will make the remaining two golden weeks even more crowded and that deprives people working far from their hometowns of the chance to go back home for family gatherings.

A spokesman from the National Development and Reform Commission, said the revision could not satisfy all the people, whose interests might vary, but did respect the opinion of a majority.

Meanwhile, Wang Zhifa, deputy director of China's Tourism Bureau, says the change of public holidays will lead in a new pattern of holiday trend.

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Also on Sunday, the State Council announced regulations on paid holidays, stipulating that employees should have their full daily salary guaranteed during paid holidays and that those who keep working should be paid three times as much.

Yao Yongmei, CRI news.