The Bad News: Sunday Begins a Six-Day Work Week. The Good News: It's the Only One All Year

Michael Wester | Jan 3, 2015 8:18 am | Add a comment | 7391 reads

[Update 5/13: China has revised the official holiday calendar to add an additional three-day weekend in September -- see details here] First, the bad news: Sunday is the first official working day of 2015, and it begins one of those heinous six-day working weeks the authorities force people to go through to make up for being given time off for holidays.

The good news: There's only one 6-day work week all year.

The official 2015 holiday calendar was released last month, and in it China seems to have taken a page from Western countries in giving the populace a Monday off when a holiday falls on a weekend – that's happening twice this year. When you add the May Day holiday, we are looking at three 3-day weekends this year (book your tickets now!). 

However there is no extra day off for Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Sunday, September 27, just four days short of the start of the October 1 holiday. I guess the Powers that Be thought that if they gave Monday the 28th off, then the whole damn population would just take that Tuesday and Wednesday off and have themselves a nice 12-day break, which would be the end of modern civilization as we know it.

Be it the luck of the lunar draw or by design, we're looking at a great year for normalcy and regular work weeks, and only once will we be forced to work six days in a row – and we'll be getting that one out of the way this week.

Consult the calendar above or read away in text below:

New Year: Thursday Jan 1 through Saturday Jan 3. Makeup work day on Sunday Jan 4.
Spring Festival/Chinese New Year: Wednesday Feb 18 through Tuesday Feb 24. Makeup work days on Sunday Feb 15 and Saturday Feb 28.
Tomb Sweeping Festival: Sunday Apr 5. Since it falls on a weekend, Monday Apr 6 is a holiday.
May Day Holiday: Friday May 1.
Dragon Boat Festival: Saturday Jun 20. Since it falls on a weekend, Monday Jun 22 is a holiday.
Mid-Autumn Festival: Sunday Sep 27. No compensation day off.
National Day: Thursday Oct 1 through Wednesday Oct 7. Makeup work day on Saturday Oct 10.

Graphic: the Beijinger