ABOUT 80 percent of respondents to an online survey said they agree with a proposed change to the country's statutory holiday system.

The seven-day-long survey, conducted by the central government's office in charge of national holidays, asked six questions to more than 1.55 million people about their opinions on the proposal on four major news portals and the official Website of the nation's top economic planning body since last Friday.

The proposal, worked out by a special panel after more than a year's research, calls for scrapping the May Day Golden Week while adding three traditional festivals as national holidays, which means workers will receive one more paid day off each year.

The three-day May Day holiday will be cut to one day, while the Tomb-sweeping Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival will become national vacations, according to the draft released by the office on November 9.

That raises the number of paid holiday days to 11 from 10.

About 89 percent of survey participants voted yes to the idea of having 11 days of holiday every year while 68% were supportive of changing the May Day holiday schedule.

Besides, the draft also calls for the Spring Festival break to start on Lunar New Year's Eve instead of the first day of the Chinese New Year, and the holiday will end a day earlier, which won support of almost 81 percent of people taking part in the survey.

Meanwhile around 90 percent people said they hope the nation can introduce a paid vacation system, a way that may ease huge traffic burdens caused by the current golden week holiday system.

The office said besides the online survey, they also received replies through hotline interviews and e-mails while printed questionnaires were also released to government authorities across the country, Xinhua news agency reported today.

All the feedback will be submitted to the State Council, Xinhua said. The final holiday arrangement is expected to be released at the end of this year and will be enacted in time for the 2008 Spring Festival.

China introduced the Golden Week holidays in 1999 to boost domestic consumption.

Tourism revenue soared from 14.1 billion yuan (US$1.90 billion) during the 1999 National Day holiday to 64.2 billion yuan during the recent Golden Week in October.

However, complaints about overcrowding, poor service, a scarcity of hotel rooms and damage to scenic spots, especially historic sites, during the Golden Week breaks have spurred debate over the merits of the weeklong holiday concept.

The new holiday draft was said to be enacted along with regulations on paid vacations to make sure that people have enough time to travel, yet won't all be on the move at the same time.