Happysheep's travel blogs:
|
|
  | |  |
Silence is golden: 1 May Labour Day in China
Entry 63 of 354 | show all | print this entry |
Some countries shut down when they have national holidays. It used to be the case in New Zealand when for the period between Christmas and New Year's and then for the first week or so of January, everyone was on holiday. Similarly in Europe, some countries shut down offices, factories and government departments for a summer break of one or two weeks. Everyone heads to the beach.
In China, a nation with 1.4 billion people, they all go on holiday together. At the same time. There are three main holiday periods, traditionally streched out to a week each:
the first is Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, a moveable feast around January or February. This is very much a family affair, a chance to gather for the start of another properous year.
the second, is Labour Day, 1 May, the first Golden Week of the year. Golden Week is so named because hotels and even eateries put up their prices in response to the influx of tourists.
the third, another Golden Week, is National Day, 1 October, and the days after it.
Both the Golden Weeks start with official fanfare: parades, flag-raising, national anthems, etc, and then progress to singing, dancing, eating, and the most popular pasttime both here and elsewhere: shopping.
But this year, the Golden Weeks have been cut down to size. Back in 2004 there were concerns expressed that the weeks were disrupting the economy. And, as capitalism and the economy is the new mantra of post-Communist China, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference wanted to cancel these Golden Weeks - because they hadn't achieved the results they were suppposed to. Which is, give hard-working Chinese people a decent break. Wrong.
They hadn't promoted enough internal consumption. Wealthy Chinese were going overseas rather than seeing the wonders of a crowded touristy China.
The Golden Weeks were a barrier to trade 24/7 and interupted commerce, particularly as many of the government agencies and official rubber-stampers were closed. The plan, back in 2006, was to bring in old holidays and make them 'days off'. So in 2008, enter the era of the mini-Golden Weeks, with the May holiday just three days (or one, according to who you speak to). While officially one, the Chinese do something with working the previous weekend or something to get two extra days, or in some cases the whole seven days.
With both Golden Weeks reduced this year to minis (October holiday to three days), new holiday are the Dragon Boat festival, the Qingming or Gravesweeping Festival which was in April, and the mid-Autumn festival, another family-focused day.
Last December the holiday regime was approved, taking out the May golden week and adding the three new holidays. Making a new total of 11 holidays a year - compare this with three or four weeks for most other developed countries.
A spokesperson for the National Commission for Development and Reform said that the new plan would ratify Chinese traditions, better distribute holidays and prevent the overcrowding of the golden weeks when more people travel during the new holidays and during the periods of paid holidays.
When the national holidays got started in 1999, it was to help the domestic tourism industry (ie have a boom and bust), improve the national standard of living, and allow people to travel far and wide to see their families. When they first started, some 28 million people travelled during the October Golden Week - last year it was over 120 million.
But with the new regime, a Chinanews survey reports that with three days holiday, nearly half were going to visit another suburb rather than another country. And of those who weren't traveling, nearly two-thirds would be out there shopping. One in 10 of those surveyed would like to continue working overtime.
So what's it been like here in the tourist-trap of Lijiang? Well, over the last few days there has been a noticeable increase of people arriving, who are clearly tourists (different clothing, summery dress, tour groups, etc).
And last night on the eve of Labour Day there were more local people out on the streets and drunk.
Today people wandered in local cultural dress or tidy clothes. But the main attraction wasn't around Mao's statue. It was on the streets. At the local bakery they were celebrating with a huge cake one metre wide and almost 2 metres deep. The sponge cake with white soft icing (non-dairy, containing numerous chemicals) was topped with strawberries. I even got a ballon. Along the main streets stereos were blaring and blasting. Every second shop had a display outside promoting something or rather - mobile phones, soft drinks, spirilina. The streets were packed with holiday makers and locals, who ambled.
But as for a shut down of businesses, there was no evidence that anything had shut down. In fact, in the weeks before May Day lots of places were being done up. For some strange reason, a lot of the work started on the weekend before. For example, the local theatre was stripped bare the last few days, leaving behind a shell of a building at the main entrance to the old town. Flagging and drooping trees were given a watering and tidy up last week. Lijiang wanted to put on its best face. But didn't quite manage that.
And I haven't been back to see what is happening at the back end of the old town, where a huge new square is being built and the road is being widened. The pace of things means it probably openned a few days ago and now - like those fake antiques in the markets - looks like it is 10 years old and in need of repair.
Yesterday I visited a new hotel in the old town. Last year I'd watched in horror as four or five courtyard buildings, some more than 50 years old, were torn down. Then, slowly a new hotel took shape. But it didn't look good. The entrace faced a staircase. Bad feng shui in my mind.
My suspicions were confirmed yesterday. The place, which looking Naxi in style and older than its three months, looked poorly planned and designed. To get to look at a room, we had to go up and around. At one point the balconies seemed insecure and if you were tall like me you had to duck to avoid some wood hanging down. The rooms themselves were OK, but you think if you build a new place you'd at least sort out the basic things like: can a person walk around here OK. Obviously not.
And yes, this happened in a World Heritage listed city. A city that is supposed to be preserved because of its ancient wooden buildings.
Another thing, with the mini-golden weeks, there will be less tourists here, because of the fewer days available for holidays and also because now after stories of the price hikes and difficulties getting accommodation in the busy seasons, there seem to be less folk around. Maybe this destination has been trashed.
Afterall, at lunch today we saw groups of geriatrics and young families, a sure sign a place is no longer hip and cool, but on the mass tourism trail. So where will the new destination be?
Interestingly, Zhongdian, the nearby Tibetan town, hasn't taken off, and over the last few years the golden weeks hasn't seen the anticipated numbers of tourists arrive, much to the angst of the new businesses set up in expectation that at least some of those millions who make it to Lijiang will head on 200km to Shangrila.
Zhongdian's problems are compounded by other factors. Despite being in a Tibetan area and higher than Lijiang, it lacks the surrounding mountains. Lijiang has its 5500m Jade mountain, but Zhongdian is a valley. The old town is newly built. It is considered too high and too remote for many. And its rather cold - snow this week. Plus the newly generated anti-Tibetan feeling means many Chinese consider it now unsafe to venture among the barbarians who are going for separation from the Motherland.
Here in Lijiang, rather than shut down for golden weeks, these are the busiest times. And I should rightly be charging you more for reading this.
And as a post-note, here is something from Reuters about kids from nearby here, found in factories as slaves near the coast:
Chinese police have rescued 167 village children sold to work as slave labourers in a city in the booming southern province of Guangdong.
The children, all from the ethnic Yi minority, came from poor families in the Liangshan region of the southwestern province of Sichuan more than 1000km away.
"In all, 167 child labourers have been rescued so far, 107 boys and 60 girls," the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po paper said.
The China Daily said there had been several arrests and printed a picture of one young girl crying after being rescued from a factory in Dongguan, an industrial city in the Pearl River Delta between Hong Kong and the provincial capital, Guangzhou.
China announced a nationwide crackdown on slavery and child labour last year after reports that hundreds of poor farmers, children and mentally disabled people were forced to work in kilns and mines in Shanxi province and neighbouring Henan.
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by happysheep, from Beijing, China or try a new search. |
| |
| Table of Contents |
| 63. | Silence is golden: 1 May Labour Day in China - Beijing, China May 01, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
74 votes 
This is a top pick!
