The general trend in offices -
airlines, travel services and the like
- is for relatively early opening and
closing, with long lunch hours.
Typical hours are 8-11.30am and
1.30-4.30pm, with a half day on
Saturday. Generalization is difficult,
though, as there is no real equivalent
to the Western Sunday, the universal
day of rest.
Post and telecommunications
offices open daily, often until
late at night. Shops , too,
nearly all open daily, keeping long,
late hours, especially in big cities,
and although banks usually
close on Sundays - or for the whole
weekend - even this is not always the
case. Tourist sights such as
parks, pagodas and temples open every
day, usually 8am-5pm and without a
lunch break. Most public parks open
from about 6am, ready to receive the
morning flood of shadow boxers. Museums
, however, tend to have slightly more
restricted hours, including lunch
breaks and one closing day a week,
often Monday or Tuesday. If you arrive
at an out-of-the-way place that seems
to be closed, however, don't despair -
knocking or poking around will often
turn up a drowsy doorkeeper.
Conversely, you may find other places
locked and deserted when they are
supposed to be open.
Admission charges
Virtually all tourist sights attract
some kind of admission charge
. This will often come to no more
than a few yuan, but discriminatory
pricing policies usually mean that
foreigners are charged more than
locals. Sometimes the mark-up is a
matter of an extra yuan or two,
other times it amounts to a hundred
percent surcharge. In some extreme
cases, at sites considered of
international importance, such as
the Forbidden City in Beijing or the
Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an,
foreigners may find themselves
paying a hundred times or even more
than the locals - up to ฅ80
(US$10). Sometimes there is a
special student price which you can
often qualify for if you have a student
card.
Public holidays
There are several different kinds of
holidays on the Chinese calendar when
various facilities will be closed. The
biggest of all,
Chinese New Year
or Spring Festival, is the only
traditional
Chinese festival marked by a
holiday and it sees nearly all shops
and offices closing down for three
days, and a large proportion of the
population off work. Even after the
third day, offices such as banks may
operate on restricted hours until the
official end of the holiday period,
eleven days later. The other
traditional Chinese festivals, such as
the Qingming Festival and the
Mid-autumn Festival, are not marked by
official holidays, though you may
notice a growing tendency for
businesses to operate restricted hours
at these times.
There are also a number of secular
public holidays which have been
celebrated since 1949, the most
important being January 1 ( New
Year's Day ) and October 1 ( National
Day ). Offices close on these
dates, though many shops will remain
open. Finally, there are a few other
dates, March 8 (Women's Day), May 1 (Labour
Day), June 1 (Children's Day), July 1
(Chinese Communist Party Day) and
August 1 (Army Day), which are
celebrated by parades and festive
activities by the groups concerned,
but are not general holidays.
Businesses and offices tend to operate
normally on these dates.
