journalist, get your facts straight

A correspondent of a well-known Dutch newspaper (Bettine Vriesekoop for NRC Handelsblad) was freshly flown in at the end of August and she has her own blog to translate/describe news and things that happen in China. One of her articles describes the October Golden Week.

In this article she gives the Dutch people an explanation of the term Golden Week: she states that this week is called a golden week for the only reason that the Moonfestival this year fell together with the National Day Holiday.

Now, if you have lived in China for a while, you know that each year China knows a couple of “Golden Weeks”, Labour Day Holiday and National Day Holiday. The term golden is chosen due to the fact that the prices of flight tickets, hotel-accommodation and tourist attractions sharply increase and millions and millions of people travel around the country during those weeks. The (additional) turnover (and profit) that is generated during these weeks is so substantial that they have become known as Golden Weeks.

Of course it is understandable that people think that the Moon Festival coinciding with the October Holiday must be the reason for the week to be called golden, but for crying out loud, this is a journalist who earns her money by reporting news and facts about a “far away country” to the Dutch readers!

I would suggest to Bettine to do a bit more research and a lot less assuming before publishing nonsense like this!