China will scrap its Golden Week holiday held in May, one of three week-long breaks initially set-up to boost retail sales and bolster the national economy, officials said on Friday.
Instead, days off for Tomb-Sweeping Day, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, will be granted.
"Recently there have been repeated calls by political leaders and society in general for adjustments to our system of legal holidays," said a notice by the National Reform and Development Commission announcing the plan.
The changes could go into effect as early as next year, it said.
China introduced three annual "Golden Weeks" in 1999, including the Spring Festival early in the year and the October 1 National Day holiday, to help lift the economy out of the Asian financial crisis.
But with several straight years of double-digit economic growth, this had increasingly been seen as unnecessary.
The changes will raise the number of legal days off each year, including holidays and weekends, to 115 from the current 114.
They also signify that culture is re-gaining official status after being frowned upon for decades by the Communist Party.
Among reasons cited for the change were problems created by massive travel bottlenecks as millions of Chinese head for their hometowns for the week.
"The new arrangement better respects people's right to rest, as there are now more holidays and they are spread through the year more reasonably," Xinhua quoted an official with the government panel that advised the change as saying.
