To significantly increase the length of national holidays, there is a particular need for more visibility and more landmark progress in paid leave.

　　As the May Day holiday approaches, the topic "May Day actually only gives one day off" continues to occupy the trending search lists.

　　Many people are dissatisfied with the current holiday adjustment arrangements, saying that shifting days around like this does not increase the total number of holidays. After the Qingming and May Day holiday adjustments, the "two-day weekend" became a "one-day weekend" for several consecutive weeks, and people worked three "six-day weeks" before and after the holidays.

　　For this reason, some people say they hope to have normal holidays and normal two-day weekends. Others go further, hoping to be able to take longer holidays without all the shifting around.

　　Public holidays are closely related to everyone's life. So, apart from shifting days around, how else can we take our holidays? This has undoubtedly become a public issue of considerable practical significance.

　　Behind the trending searches is the expectation for a better holiday system

　　It should be noted that there are widespread differences in public holidays and paid leave between developing and developed countries. By comparison, developing countries or regions generally have more public holidays but clearly insufficient paid leave.

　　One possible reason is that developing countries are generally constrained by economic and social development, making it difficult to universally mandate more paid leave, and enterprises are even less proactive. Public holidays at this time undoubtedly play the role of providing a "fallback" for workers' right to rest.

　　China's 11 public holidays are actually not few, on par with countries such as France and Italy; however, China's statutory paid leave of 5-15 days is overall not advantageous in duration, there is room for improvement in structure, and there are still problems at the level of implementation. These gaps are precisely the room for improvement.

　　In 2008, China's "Golden Week" system underwent major changes, abolishing the May Day "Golden Week" and adding three short holidays: Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. The total number of rest days and statutory holidays in a year also increased from 114 days to 115 days.

　　Thereafter, in order to solve the "concentrated vacation" problem brought about by the dual concentration of space and time in the "Golden Week," implementing paid leave became an important choice. However, because the holiday system involves culture and folk customs, conceptual change, economic development, social affordability and many other aspects, the implementation of paid leave in China has been slow.

　　For this reason, whenever important holidays approach, the related problems become prominent, and even repeatedly become trending topics. In fact, behind this is also the public's urgent expectation for a better holiday system.

　　We can try exploring the increase of public holidays with policies tailored to each locality

　　Under China's current circumstances, what can be achieved first is to do a good job in providing fallback holiday guarantees.

　　This requires earnestly implementing the Labor Law, guaranteeing the implementation of the two-day weekend system, restricting and even completely prohibiting employers from occupying weekends for overtime and the big-small week system, guaranteeing the full payment of overtime pay, and guaranteeing full holidays for annual leave, marriage leave and other holidays.

　　At the same time, on the basis of nationally unified public holidays, it is also possible to explore, with policies tailored to each locality, the possibility of increasing the stock of public holidays. A reference can be found in the current situation of some ethnic minority areas.

　　The Measures for Holidays of National Annual Festivals and Commemorative Days stipulate that festivals customary to ethnic minorities shall have their holiday dates prescribed by the local people's governments of the areas where the respective ethnic minorities live in concentrated communities, in accordance with the customs of those ethnic groups. According to this provision, all ethnic minority areas have their own unique public holidays in addition to public holidays.

　　For example, Tibet's "Tibetan New Year" and "Shoton Festival," Guangxi's "March 3rd," and ethnic minority areas in Yunnan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and elsewhere all have their own unique public holidays. This year, Liangshan in Sichuan has "Ethnic Unity and Progress Festival," "Torch Festival," "Prefecture Anniversary" and "Yi New Year," totaling as many as 16 days.

　　In fact, apart from ethnic minority areas, other places also have their own traditions and cultures that need to be further promoted. This provides a precious cultural foundation and consensus for adding holidays.

　　Therefore, while considering increasing the number of nationally unified public holidays, if the provisions of the Measures can be expanded so that more regions in China can increase their own unique local public holidays in light of local conditions, this will undoubtedly effectively alleviate the current focusing effect of unified vacation time and space and promote the healthy development of tourism consumption.

　　To significantly increase the length of national holidays, there is a particular need for more visibility and more landmark progress in paid leave. This requires relevant departments to better understand the concerns and difficulties of private enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises and their employees regarding paid leave, and to carry out work targeting the difficulties and pain points.

　　Of course, in this gradual process of advancement, more opportunities for participation should also be provided to the public and all stakeholders. Only with diversified participating subjects can vacation policy decision-making be more scientific and reasonable, gain broader understanding and acceptance, and step by step effectively improve the public's holiday experience.