This autumn break I took only one day off. I left Guangdong on Friday, added the weekend, and drove my two kids to Guilin, three days round trip.
Along the way I talked to a lot of people. Guesthouse front desk staff, the owner of a rice noodle shop, raftsmen on the river, an auntie who leads people to the scenic area, a shopkeeper selling kumquats. We talked about where we came from, and about how business had suddenly picked up these past few days. The answers were all similar. Some places had given students an autumn break, and families came out to travel. One owner could count on his fingers which cities in Guangdong were on break and when, which cities in Hunan were on until which day, and that Zhejiang would have to wait until the end of the month. He knew more than I did.
I had assumed the autumn break was a minor novelty in a few places. Schools let out for a few days, parents got a headache for a few days, and it passed. This trip changed my mind. For people in the tourism business it is real income, and they have already learned to schedule their business around this calendar.
The Shopkeepers’ Books Are More Convincing Than the Documents
The autumn break, piloted in scattered places, is usually given three goals. Reducing workload, practice-based education, and expanding service consumption. The first two are for schools and families, the third is for the market. What I heard and saw on this trip was mostly the third.
Mid-November in Guilin is normally the low season. Not this week. You had to circle the car park twice to find a space, the guesthouse rooms had been booked out days in advance, and Yangshuo West Street at night was packed shoulder to shoulder, nothing but a sea of heads.
The shopkeepers we talked to were remarkably unanimous about the autumn break. They all said it was good. Their reasoning is simple. Kids are off, so parents have to take them out, and going out means eating, sleeping and buying tickets. Whether a new thing survives does not depend on how beautifully the document is written, but on whether a few more lines of numbers appear in these people’s books. On that count, the autumn break passes.
What interested me more was their information. I had assumed outsiders had no idea whether other provinces were on break. Not at all. They had the start and end dates lined up. People in the tourism business are more sensitive to holidays than most parents.
The licence plates in Guilin these days were a mixed bunch too. Guangdong plates, Hunan plates, Fujian plates, it looked like a car show.
Same Five Days, Very Different Layouts
It was from those conversations that I realized the same five-day autumn break is laid out very differently from place to place.
My local version this time was November 11 to 13, joined to the weekend of the 14th and 15th, making five days. In weekday terms, Wednesday to Sunday, which is 34567.
Some places do it another way. Shaoyang in Hunan, for example, gives Friday the 13th off, joins the weekend, then Monday and Tuesday the 16th and 17th, making Friday through the following Tuesday, which is 56712.
Both are three days of holiday plus a two-day weekend. Same total, but the difference is enormous.
The 34567 Layout Leaves Parents No Choice
Start with the case where parents can take all three days off. Both layouts need three days, so it is a tie. But that assumption barely holds. Looking at the check-in records in the class group chat, families that can take three consecutive days off to travel can be counted on one hand. Most, like me, can only take the weekend plus one day.
That is what I did, one day off on Friday, taking 567. For someone in my position, the difference appears immediately.
- One day off. On my side there is only one way, Friday plus the weekend, that is 567. In Shaoyang there are two, 567 or 671.
- Two days off. On my side still only one, Thursday and Friday plus the weekend, that is 4567. In Shaoyang also two, 5671 or 6712.
- Only when both parents take three days off does it become the same, but in practice there are still differences.
The same five days, yet the 34567 arrangement leaves parents with no choice at all. You can only count backwards from the weekend. Want three days out, take Friday off. Four days, take Thursday and Friday. Five days, take Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
First, the Weather Options Differ
I took almost the full loss of the 34567 layout this time.
I left Guangdong on Friday for Guilin and it was rain and fog almost the whole way. A drive of just over four hours took more than six, with no traffic at all, simply because the rain was so heavy.
Once I reached Guilin it was still raining. By evening it came down harder, and basically the first day was wasted.
Saturday and Sunday were good though. Blue sky and white clouds over the Li River, fresh air along the Ten-Mile Gallery, it was refreshing.
And Monday, according to the forecast, was another clear day.
If I had the 671 option, I definitely would not have chosen 567. That is the concrete benefit of having one more choice.
The Kids’ Homework Has to Be Counted Too
Autumn break is not summer vacation. Over five days most schools hand out a pile of homework bigger than an ordinary weekend. Looking at the homework lists from my two kids’ classes, you really cannot finish it in less than a day or two.
But under the 34567 layout, the kids do homework first and travel later.
In my family, for example, the kids were home on Wednesday and Thursday, my wife and I both had to work, and the homework basically did not move.
Not moving was not moving. I was not worried at the time, there were still several days left.
That relaxation is fine when you are not going anywhere. Once you go out, the situation is completely different.
Those three days away, dead tired during the day, and at night still in the hotel urging the kids to write homework. Two nights in a row I heard parents up and down the corridor shouting at their children over homework. Maybe that is a unique scenery of the autumn break on the road.
What if the order were reversed. What if 567 were the trip, and Monday and Tuesday at home.
Three days out playing first, two days at home doing homework after. I think the kids’ efficiency would be much higher.
Once they have had their fun and their hearts settle, sitting down to write goes smoothly. Doing homework first tests human nature too much. The kids know they are going out in a couple of days, they are already packing, their minds are entirely outside. Getting them to sit quietly and do homework is really hard.
What It Looks Like to the Employer
Although both are three days, 34567 and 56712 look completely different to an employer.
Normally a week is five days. On Monday people have just come back from a break, sitting at the desk with their minds still on the highway, taking forever to write a simple document. On Friday their hearts are already gone, the group chat is discussing where to go for the weekend. In practice the most productive days each week are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The 34567 layout cuts out Wednesday and Thursday, so two of the three days fall on productive days. The 56712 layout cuts only one productive day, Tuesday.
What is worse is the distribution. The 56712 version is one day on Friday plus Monday and Tuesday of the following week, spreading the break across two weeks. Each of the two weeks still has some margin left, and a couple of evenings of overtime can make it up. The 34567 version hollows out the middle of a single week. That week is basically lost, and it is hard to make up.
So employers hesitate when approving leave. Not because they are unwilling to let employees accompany their kids, but because the cost does not add up.
Honestly though, asking for one day off went smoother than I expected. The school sent a notice, the employer signed, and that was it. What is really hard to ask for is three days at once.
The Difference in Travel and Transport
When we only consider the case of one day off to make a three-day mini holiday, everyone on my 34567 version squeezes onto Friday. The Shaoyang version can split across two three-day windows, half leaving on Friday, half waiting for Saturday.
You can see the difference at the gate of any scenic spot. The jam starts Friday afternoon, Saturday is the most crowded, and by Monday it clearly thins out. Monday is the best window for avoiding the crowds, and in my version that window happens to be a school day.
The transport bill is more direct. If you fly, leaving Friday and returning Sunday costs a lot more than leaving Saturday and returning Monday. Whether the tail of the holiday can stretch to Monday or Tuesday directly decides how much more money and misery you pay.
Where It Gets Stuck
Thinking carefully about why such differences appear in when places hold the autumn break.
I feel it is mainly because the autumn break is a new thing, and everyone is still exploring.
Compared with the national-level deliberation over public holidays every year, the deliberation over autumn break dates in each locality is probably not that fine-grained. You do 34567, so I do 34567. If most places choose it, it is safe. Places like Shaoyang that dare to try 56712, I think deserve more credit.
The Book of Rites says, tension and slack, that is the way of King Wen and King Wu. As for which day to slacken, I suggest giving parents a bit more choice.