A member of China's top political advisory body has proposed that the traditional Spring Festival holiday should be extended from 7 days to 14 days, the Guangzhou Daily reports.
Tao Huacheng, who is attending the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing, said that as Chinese people's most important festival for family reunions, the current seven-day-long holiday is too short with much of it spent on traveling and only a little time left to visit family members.
Moreover, the extension of the Spring Festival holiday could further increase domestic consumption and expand domestic demand, which in turn would stimulate the country's economic development, Tao said.
Many migrant workers, who constitute a major part of the national workforce, return to cities to find jobs after the Lantern Festival which falls on the fifteenth day of the first month of lunar year, according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Tao noted that because many of the firms they work for have extended the Spring Festival holiday, it would be wise for the government to do likewise and make the holiday extension a national policy.