In a country that for thousands of years holds diligence and hard work in the highest esteem, the Chinese have learned to relax, travel and loosen their wallets since China began its thrice annual holidays seven years ago, known as golden weeks.

When the first golden week holiday was initiated on a trial basis to celebrate National Day in October 1999, China was astonished to see Chinese tourists take 28 million person-trips while spending 14.1 billion yuan (about US$1.62 billion).

Tourists in China, nevertheless, have seemingly never looked back since that first full week of holiday.

The national tourism co-ordination office predicts that this week's golden week, which marks May Day or International Labour Day, is expected to witness a record high 120 million person-trips taken by Chinese tourists. If past trends hold true, they are expected to spend more than 40 billion yuan (US$5 billion).

According to cumulative statistics since 1999, Chinese took 1.3 billion trips and spent more than 560.6 billion yuan (US$70.1 billion) during the past golden weeks.

The World Tourism Organization estimates that every tourist dollar will generate 4.3 times that amount in economic spin-off. This would mean the country's golden weeks have been worth over 2 trillion yuan (US$250 billion) to the Chinese economy.

Yang Shengming, a noted researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the golden week holidays have meant big changes to China's economic development. The tourism industry has grown by responding to the demands of consumers, Yang said.

Until the mid-1990s, Chinese people used to work six days a week and only had one or two long holidays during the year. Now if all weekends and holidays are counted, workers can enjoy up to 114 days off or about a third of the year is spent in leisure time.

A sample survey made by Professor Wang Qiyan, director of the leisure economy research institute of the prestigious Renmin University of China in Beijing, found that the average daily leisure time for Chinese urbanites is six hours and six minutes.

The increase of leisure time has spurred a boom to the leisure industry. In major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Gangzhou, recreation has become an engine for economic development.

Having an entire week off also means that Chinese tourists have enough time to head out of the country. Last year, the number of outbound mainland tourists reached up to 31 million, making China the largest exporter of tourists in Asia.

Source: China Daily