A: Christmas and Thanksgiving may be the most important festivals for most western people. Is the Spring Festival your most important festival?

B: Yes, it is our most important traditional festival. And besides we have the International Labor’s Day and our National Day are our other public holidays. The other two traditional Chinese festivals, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-autumn Festival are still kept, but they are not public holidays.

A: Oh yes you’ve been celebrating National Day and May Day. You used to parades every year too. How do you celebrate them now?

B: Parades were the big thing in the past. The emphasis now is to give people a week-long holiday so that they can have a really good long rest. When each May Day holiday or National Day comes, there will be a so-called “golden week” coming along which means a golden chance both for the consumers and the business and the railways. With more money in their pockets and with improved traveling conditions and facilities all round, more and more Chinese people are taking tourist trips for their holidays nowadays.

A: That’s interesting. And where do people usually go for their trips? Do you travel abroad too?

B: We are beginning to travel abroad, but this is just a new phenomenon, and mostly limited to Southeastern Asian countries and areas, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Some tourist companies do organize trips to Europe, but that’s not common yet, partly because traveling abroad is very expensive.