Madness In The Middle Kingdom

October 1st marks the founding of the modern nation of China under Mao Zedong’s Communists. To highlight this celebration China implemented the “Golden Week” holiday that gives us and the regular Chinese folks a week long holiday. The actual holiday is 3 days but most companies work 2 days in lieu and then tack those on to a weekend so we get 7 continous days off work.

The idea was that this holiday (and a Golden Week in May to celebrate the International Communist Holiday of May 1st) would stimulate domestic tourism however it would seem that this hasn’t really happened. Most folks use the time to travel home and visit family. The proposal now is to cancel the Golden Weeks and spread that time out over other more traditional Chinese Holidays like the Dragon Boat Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival. The result would be some long weekends throughout the year rather than a lump sum two time holiday.

We decided to spend this October break at home getting rested and reacquainted as a family. Most of the other family units in our circle of friends (which has been referred to as a clique by the way) decided to do the same. Instead of a great time doing hockey, beach visits, playing in the park and enjoying nature we have been subjected to this weather forecast which is far from “Golden”

It doesn’t matter the day … it’s always like this for “Today” and “Tomorrow”. The result has been some serious cabin fever. On the plus side it might make us actually appreciate going into work.