SHANGHAI, May 9 -- China won't reduce its existing 10 days of public holidays but may allocate more holidays during national traditional festivals, Zhang Xiqin, the vice director of the National Tourism Administration, said at a press conference yesterday.

"We'll probably add more traditional holidays as public holidays," Zhang said after complaints about the golden week holiday practice and appeals to modify public holidays.

New Year's Day, Spring Festival, Labor (May Day) Day and National Day (October 1) share the 10 public holidays now.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning body, submitted earlier this year a draft suggesting that the country may shorten the length of its three golden weeks but add more traditional festivals, such as the Dragon Boat Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day, as public holidays.

Zhang said the three golden week holidays that fall in May, October, and during the Spring Festival, have disadvantages such as overcrowded tourist resorts and the shortage of train and air tickets.

"The government is working to find solutions for them," he said.

A total of 179 million tourists traveled around the country during this year's Labor Day holiday, bringing in 73.6 billion yuan (US$9.56 billion) of tourism revenue, up 25.8 percent from a year earlier, officials announced yesterday.

The government began the golden week holiday practice in 1999 by moving surrounding weekends to create the week-long holidays in an effort to encourage holiday spending and boost the country's economy.