The Jammed and Crowded“Golden Week”

Chinese people call their National Day as the start of their “Golden Week” as they will have a 7-day holiday from that day. This year, the “Golden Week” was added by the Mid-Autumn Day, making it an 8-day holiday – the longest “Golden Week” ever.

The past “Golden Week” ended with a lot of things. The most impressive one is the monster traffic jam happening in almost every place of China. According to some reports, during the holiday, about 740 million people went out through expressways, railways and airways, which is a rare phenomenon in the world.

The “Golden Week” is usually highly expected for the jollification and joy it will bring. However, the traffic jams at the beginning and end of the “Golden Week”, and the “overly large number of people” that overcrowded the scenic spots got on Chinese people’s nerves. The word “crowded” became one of the hottest holidays in the “Golden Week”.

The Jammed Expressways

There had been too many reports about traffic jams on the expressways in the “Golden Week”. As said in the online forum, “the most popular scenic spot in the ‘Golden Week’ of China is the expressway”. During the holiday, it is a common case that hundreds or even thousands of cars were blocked in a section of expressways for a couple of hours or longer. Some passengers got off their cars and began to play tennis or walk their dogs on the road to kill their time.

Outwardly, the monster traffic jams were caused by the toll-free policy issued by the Chinese government. China has the largest number of paid expressways in China as 70% of paid expressways are in China. Since the Chinese people are free of tolls during the “Golden Week”, their increasing eagerness to go out is easy to understand. As more people chose to go out, the traffic jams were sure to happen.

Actually, the problem was not related with the toll-free policy itself. The defect of implementation was to be blamed. Most criticism pointed at the measure of issuing cards in the toll stations. Though the toll stations in the expressways did not collect fees from passing cars, they still issued cards – some kind of passing license – for the vehicles with fewer than seven seats.

The goal of issuing cards might be for statistical data –an understandable purpose. However, the actions of issuing cards stopped the fluent passing of vehicles, which artificially increased the traffic jam.

The government departments responsible for managing expressways should be blamed for this situation because of their slow reaction towards the huge block. Take the busiest Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway for example: when the tollfree policy took effect at 0 o’clock on September 30, the traffic volume increased at a fast pace and the traffic jam was formed soon. But toll stations along this expressway did not stop issuing cards until October 4, when the traffic department made clear orders of issuing cards no longer. This shows that the administrative department saw the negative influence of issuing cards on the traffic condition and took corresponding measures, but their reaction and action were slow and it needs to be improved.

The Overcrowded Scenic Spots

Even when you overcome the difficulties on your journey and reach your destination, you will see that your challenge still exists.

The scene is not only seen in the movie or video game, but also in the scenic spots of China during the “Golden Week”. According to the official data, about 362 million tourists made their travels in China in the eight-day holiday. The 119 scenic spots which are under the administration of the state government reported the number of tourists of 3.424 million, up 20.96% compared with last year.

“Seas of people, mountains of people”, these are what Chinese use to describe the huge amount of people in an area. This year, there are bigger and more “seas and mountains of people”.

On the night of October 2, a lot of visitors had to spend their night on the top of Huashan Mountain, one of the five sacred mountains in China, because the number of visitors exceeded the capacity of cable cars. During that period, a lot of visitors encircled the gate of the scenic area and demanded repayment. Several small conflicts also happened, during which some tourists were stabbed.

Also on October 2, over 120 thousand people got onto the Gulangyu Island of Xiamen, easily beating the historical high record. Some people said that it was hard to walk at normal speed in the island and some even half-jokingly said that the huge number of tourists might sink down this island. The similar reports were frequently heard in the 8-day holiday, involving Mount Tai, Yellow Mountain, Lijiang, Lushan Mountain and other places of interest in China.

“We do not come here to see and be mixed with so many people,” some tourists complained. “Why don’t the administrative units of these scenic areas publish and limit the number of tourists?”

Yes, it is the administrative department to be blamed again. Actually, the national government required the 5A and 4A scenic areas to have definite provisions about its best reception volume and biggest volume. But most scenic spots are not willing to publish the relevant data to the public and do not want to limit the number of tourists when the number gets too high because of the irresistible attraction of huge profits. That’s not hard to understand. Local governments of these scenic areas heavily rely on the ticket income for their government expenditure and the huge amount of people during holidays means unlimited source of money for them.

The Real Defendants

Generally speaking, the huge number of people and the inefficient management are the direct reasons to the jammed and crowded “golden week”. But there are deep reasons for this situation.

Chinese official newspaper People’s Daily reported that the traffic jams in the “Golden Week” reflected the situation of China. “There are no fewer problems from development than the problems from having no development. However, the development should not be stopped just like we cannot prohibit the use of cars to solve the traffic jam.”

The Xinhua News Agency reported that the improving living level of people made them crave for longer and better leisure time, which is hard to be satisfied by the “Golden Week”only. Therefore, the traffic jams on expressways and the overcrowded scenic spots are the “side products” of the national holiday system.

Since the national holiday system was carried out in 1999, there have been endless disputes about holidays. In 2008, the Chinese government cancelled the “Golden Week” starting with the Labor Day, creating four small “Golden Weeks” (3-day holiday) respectively starting with the Dragon-Boat Day, TombSweeping Day, Labor Day and Mid-autumn Day. Presently, there are two “Golden Weeks” for Chinese and the one starting with the Spring Festival is traditionally conceptualized as the time for the union and get-together of the family (meaning that people are not going out). That’s why so many people chose to go out during the National Day “Golden Week”.

Some analysts report that Chinese people have shorter and less comfortable holidays than most of other countries. The world-known consulting company Mercer issued the Statistical Report about the Holiday Interest of Employees in the World on December 13, 2011, showing that the number and duration of holidays of Chinese people are only ranked at the 59th place among 62 countries and regions.

The short holiday force people to take travels massively and collectively during the National Day “Golden Week”, which only leads to the high cost and low comfort.

Proposed Solutions

The jammed expressways and overcrowded scenic areas are pressing for solutions. The government and scholars have already thought about them.

“The tourists should change their habits of traveling,” said Li Jinmao, vice president of the Guangdong Association of Tourism. Presently, most of travelers choose the famous cities and places of interest as their first choice for sightseeing. “But these places have their own limit and are hard to please every customer,” he said. “Actually, people can enjoy wonderful natural scenes in the vast rural areas of China. They can have different experiences from their daily life in these areas and it could help to improve the rural economy of China.”

“Of course, this needs the government to further improve the tourism conditions in rural areas,” he added.

The more effective and urgent measure is to increase the number of holidays for Chinese people to give them more choices. There are augmented voices for resuming the Labor Day “Golden Week” and even creating a new “Golden Week” by combining several Chinese traditional holidays in July and August.

Some people also suggested “alternative times for traveling”. This does not mean that people should go out on different days of a “Golden Weak”, but have different time for their holidays, aka the paid leave.

The paid leave is believed to be a permanent and best solution to all problems caused by the “Golden Week”. Developed countries like France and the US serve good examples for China. The French and Americans can choose when to have their annual holiday in a year without any worries about the payment. Therefore, they can choose their best time to take a holiday with their friends and families.

China carried out the Rules about Employees’ Paid Vacations early in 2008. But the result is not good because of the less efficient implementation and light punishment for wrongdoers. According to a survey, only 30% of employees in China can enjoy paid vacations while a large number of Chinese employees are not even ensured with the payment for overtime work. That means the system of paid leave is far from being matured in China. However, it is necessary to complete this task. When Chinese people are not forced to go out during the “Golden Week”, it is time for them to have real fun in traveling without waiting hours on expressways or watching people in scenic areas.