{"id":6166,"date":"2011-10-02T00:52:20","date_gmt":"2011-10-02T04:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=6166"},"modified":"2016-09-27T13:15:13","modified_gmt":"2016-09-27T17:15:13","slug":"national-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/national-day\/","title":{"rendered":"National Day (\u56fd\u5e86\u8282)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another Chinese National Day<\/strong> (\u56fd\u5e86\u8282 – gu\u00f3 q\u00ecng ji\u00e9) has come and gone, as yesterday marked the 62nd\u00a0anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China<\/strong> (\u4e2d\u534e\u4eba\u6c11\u5171\u548c\u56fd – zh\u014dng hu\u00e1 r\u00e9n m\u00edn g\u00f2ng h\u00e9 gu\u00f3).<\/p>\n

\"Tiananmen

Tiananmen Square.<\/p><\/div>\n

On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong<\/strong> (\u6bdb\u6cfd\u4e1c – M\u00e1o Z\u00e9 D\u014dng) declared the founding of a new nation in a ceremony at Beijing’s famous Tiananmen Square <\/strong>(\u5929\u5b89\u95e8\u5e7f\u573a – ti\u0101n’\u0101n m\u00e9n gu\u01ceng ch\u01ceng). After years of war with the Kuomintang <\/strong>(\u56fd\u6c11\u515a – gu\u00f3 m\u00edn d\u01ceng) and years of suffering from the invading Japanese, China was finally united once again. The day was made a national holiday just a few months after the new China was born, on December 2, 1949.<\/p>\n

Fifty years later, in 1999, National Day was made a Golden Week<\/strong> (\u9ec4\u91d1\u5468 – hu\u00e1ng j\u012bn zh\u014du) along with the Spring Festival<\/strong> (\u6625\u8282 -Ch\u016bn ji\u00e9). During the two Golden Weeks, three days of paid holiday are given to workers. In past years, many companies re-arranged the schedule to allow for a full seven days of holiday. This was set up to encourage development of the tourism industry, but the government soon found that this plan hadn’t worked out as they had hoped, and rather had undesirable economic consequences. As a result, most companies just take three days off now. Schools close down for the week as well, and many Chinese people travel, making the Golden Weeks the busiest travel season anywhere on Earth. Airports, train stations, and bus stations are packed full of people who are either heading home for a visit or embarking on a family vacation. Every year on October 1, thousands of Chinese people flock to Beijing to visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City <\/strong>(\u7d2b\u7981\u57ce – z\u01d0 j\u00ecn ch\u00e9ng) to celebrate this patriotic day.<\/p>\n

Here are a few videos to get you in a nationalistic mood:<\/p>\n