Special Days

A grand show of Peking Opera, dance, symphonic music and acrobatics by some 300 Chinese artists from eight performance troupes raised the curtain of the Chinese Cultural Festival at th

China boasts many picturesque locations. Different places are characterized by diverse places of interest.

It was started in the early eighties as an effort to reverse the anti-intellectual sentiment nurtured by the "Cultural Revolution". It is yet to become an established holiday.

A communist-led nationalist army staged the first armed uprising in Chinese communist history against the Nationalists on August 1, 1927. It was regarded as the beginning of the Red Army (later the People's Liberation Army). Now the anniversary is often used to promote better relationships between the army and civilians, a tradition believed to have helped it beat the Nationalists during the civil war in 1949.

It marked the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 in Shanghai. It is usually characterized by front page editorials from major government newspapers.

It is the most memorable day of Chinese kids all over the country. Almost all entertainment places such as cinemas, parks and children museums and palaces are open free to them. Elementary schools throw celebration parties while parents shower them with presents.

This holiday is introduced to China after 1949 and is an important official holiday.

International Workers' Day (a name used interchangeably with May Day) is a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labour movement. May Day commonly sees organized street demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of working people and their labour unions throughout Europe and most of the rest of the world — though, as noted below, in neither the United States nor Canada. More radical groups such as communists and anarchists are also given to widespread street protest on this day as well.

In the China, May 1st marks the start of one of the country's three so-called "Golden Weeks". Three days off work are given, and the surrounding weekends are re-arranged so that workers in Chinese workplaces always have seven continuous days of holiday starting on the first of May and ending on the seventh. This holiday, known as "Wu Yi" (??, literally "5.1") also includes Youth Day on May 4, and is the peak period for Chinese citizens to travel around China and abroad. The government mandates the "Golden Weeks" holidays more for the purpose of domestic consumption and tourism than its political purpose.