A week's vacation?

In China, everyone takes a vacation the same time-- the first week in October and the first week in May. The Fall holiday runs from October 1st through the 7th. Seven days. Except for essential service personnel, everyone is off at that time.

But workers cannot be allowed too much idleness. So the Saturday before the holiday and the Sunday after, all of us work to make up some of the lost time. Here at the university, we teach extra classes. So the time off is actually five days.