春节应该放假多久才算合理?

针对春节期间容易出现的购票难等问题，有代表建议将春节法定假日延长至正月十五。由于春节假期较短，所以一定程度上加剧了交通拥堵和购票难的程度，也使得春节旅游经济资源未被充分开发利用。如果春节放假16天，不仅可以让人们在春节期间轻松玩好，还解决了在短时间内交通运输的压力，还促进旅游经济的发展，应该说是利国利民的好事。大家对此众说纷纭，褒贬不一。

25-year-old Zhang Lin works at an advertising firm in Beijing. With a busy work schedule, the Inner Mongolia native can only go back home for family reunions during the Spring Festival holiday for up to seven days. With train tickets always difficult to obtain during the holiday travel peak, she has to buy full-price air tickets that cost her 1,300 yuan in total, or about 200 U.S. dollars—nearly one-third of her monthly income.

"Many holidays are only for three days or so. It's not very economical for people like me to travel back home during such holidays. I really hope that the government can piece short holidays together so that we can have more days off all at one time."

Some of the country's legislators agree. At the annual meeting of the top legislature in Beijing, they have proposed an extended holiday period so citizens like Zhang can have enough time off for family reunions.

Li Jing, a National People's Congress deputy and mayor of Meishan City in Sichuan Province, has proposed extending the Lunar New Year holiday to 16 days from its current seven days.

"The Spring Festival holiday overstrains our transport system each year and hugely increases the cost of social management. Take Sichuan Province for example. We have more than 20 million migrant workers returning home before the festival. Because of the extreme shortage of train tickets, many of them must resort to carpooling or even riding motorcycles. Before having enough time with their families, they must return to their adopted cities to work a few days later."

The government's 12th Five-Year Plan stipulates that the nation's economic development should rely more on domestic consumption instead of export and investment. Li Jing says a longer Spring Festival holiday could boost people's spending and help transform the methods of achieving economic growth.

But Professor Cai Jiming of Tsinghua University opposes the proposal. Given the fact that an increasing number of China's populace is working in the industrial and service sectors, he says it's hard to imagine what would happen to the economy if a 16-day holiday was approved.

Cai also argues that the shortened public holidays should be compensated for with longer paid vacations.

"Paid holidays are still not a popular practice here in China. Some companies only grant their employees five days off or 15 days at most. But in some western countries, a worker can have a paid vacation after three months of work, and the total amount of such paid leave could reach 30 days a year."

Leading a research team on public holiday reform at Tsinghua, Cai says the government should not prolong pubic holidays but shorten them instead. In 2009, he suggested that the government cancel the National Day holiday, which stirred a huge wave of criticism on the internet.

Cai maintain his position. He says with China's economic growth people are entitled to enjoy more holidays, but not all at the same time.

For CRI, I'm Zhao Kun.