China's new holiday plan, which was approved in principle by the State Council on Friday, is unlikely to have major changes, a Chinese expert was quoted as saying by The Beijing News on Saturday.
The draft plan, which was publicized in early November for public discussion, stirred up extensive debate on whether the weeklong May Day holiday should be shortened.
As the central government has approved the revised plan "in principle" on the basis of public opinion, the chances of retaining May Day golden week are very slight, said Cai Jiming, chief of a "holiday reform" panel in Tsinghua University.
Cai, also a member of National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top advisory body, said there would only be minor changes although the central government said Friday the final plan would be promulgated after further revisions.
According to the draft plan, three traditional festivals -- Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon-Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival --shall become one-day national holidays.
New Year's Day remains a one-day holiday. The Spring Festival remains a three-day holiday, but it will start a day earlier from the eve of the Spring Festival, also known as the Lunar New Year.
The National Day golden week will remain unchanged.
As a normal practice, the government moves the weekend days adjacent to a national holiday to form a longer holiday period.
The revised plan will increase the annual number of official national holidays from 10 to 11 days.
Source: Xinhua
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