One would think that the economic planners in China would want to boost productivity and the ability for Chinese businesses to operate with the outside world by keeping work days in line as much as possible with work days elsewhere. And then something like the planning of the Jan 1 holiday hits you and you realize that there seems to be no rational planning.

This is really ridiculous: Most of the world seems to take off January 1, which is a Monday next year, and then goes back to work on January 2. In China, the very intelligent people who plan the holidays have decided that everybody should work SATURDAY AND SUNDAY (Dec 30 and 31) and then take Jan 1-3 off (Monday - Wednesday).

In some ways it might make sense that the holiday planners want 2 more days of productivity in 2006, but it really just makes business run in ridiculous fashion.