Happy Birthday China!

October 7, 1949 the People's Republic of China was formed and seven consecutive days off is mandated every year to celebrate. Nothing wrong with that of course, but seven days off is a pretty long stretch for 1.3 billion people to take off so the solution is making up the "days off' on the weekend. New York Times had an (article http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/world/asia/02china.html) covering the rescheduling confusion. Foreigners are not exempt! An email from my counterpart:

Officially there is one day off for Mid-Autumn (Sept 22nd) and three days off for National Holiday(Oct 1st to 3rd). But we usually make it three days and seven days respectively. So it means we have to make up classes on some other days.

Mid-Autumn Festival is from Sept 22 to 24 (no classes on the three days).

National Holiday is from Oct 1 to 7 (no classes on the seven days).

The following is the rescheduling of the classes:

On Sept 19 (Sunday), we will make up the classes of Sept 23 (Thursday, Week 3).

On Sept 25 (Saturday), we will make up the classes of Sept 24 (Friday, Week 3).

On Spet 26 (Sunday), we will make up the classes of Oct 6 (Wednesday, Week 5).

On Oct 9 (Saturday), we will make up the classes of Oct 7 ( Thursday, Week 5).

PS: The freshmen starts their classes on Oct 8 (Friday, Week 5). But on Oct 9, we need to make up the classes of Oct 7 (Thursday) for the freshmen.

As I bemoaned the injustice of having class on the weekend my sitemate pointed out that it must be really brutal on the students who have class everyday (we do not teach everyday). At one point after the Mid-Autumn festival they had classes SEVEN DAYS IN A ROW. Can you imagine?