Monday, October 2, 2017

National Day in China

When we booked this year's Asian adventure, with our three-day stop over in Beijing, we didn't realise we would be there for the start of a "Golden Week".

Every 1 October is the National Day of the People's Republic of China and this marked the 68th anniversary of its founding.

National Day marks the beginning of one of the country's Golden Weeks.  Golden Weeks were established in 2000.  People get two 7-day holidays, one for the Chinese Lunar New Year that is in January or February, and the other begins on National Day.

Golden Weeks were established in order to expand domestic tourism.  They let people make long-distance family visits, which also improves people's standard of living.  Basically, everyone travels during these weeks.

This year is special because this week gets extended an extra day as it includes the Mid-Autumn Festival.  So with an extra day, and with this being National Day and all, Beijing is extra packed this week.  According to the news, over 12 million domestic tourists came to Beijing while we were here.  

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