China has revised its national holiday system to ease overcrowding on railways, air routes and other transport links when much of the Chinese population is on the move at the same time each year.
The changes -- announced by the State Council late on Sunday -- bring back three traditional one-day holidays and introduce more choices for workers by allowing them to take some paid holidays outside the designated breaks.
The government had previously set three weeks each year as national holidays, when factories and offices shut and employees and their families took to the road.
Following the change, one of those weeks, the May Day holiday, will be broken up into three traditional one-day holidays -- tomb-sweeping day, dragon boat festival and mid-autumn festival -- which will be marked on separate occasions each year.
The May Day holiday will revert to a one-day holiday.
The change comes into effect next year and increases the total number of national holidays by one day to 11.
The current holiday system was created in 1999, but as China becomes more prosperous, people are traveling more and overwhelming transportation facilities.
Other major holidays include National Day, which celebrates the founding of the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1, New Year's Day and the Spring Festival, which marks the Lunar New Year when Chinese traditionally return to their home villages.
The Xinhua news agency said the government also announced that employees of government agencies, as well as state-run and private companies, will now be able to take paid vacations after one year of service.
Employees who have worked for less than 10 years will get five paid days off a year, while those who have worked between 10 and 19 years will get 10 days. Those who have worked for at least 20 years will get 15 days.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition