The government is considering increasing the number of annual holidays and including some traditional festivals, such as Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, among them.

Holiday dates will be released "in the near future", a source from the Xinhua News Agency was quoted as saying, after which public opinion will be sought on the Internet.

Cai Jiming, a professor at Tsinghua University and member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said celebrating traditional festivals would help preserve folk customs.

Writer Feng Jicai said the cultural meaning of traditional festivals should be restored, particularly because of increasing globalization.

Golden Week holidays were introduced in 1999 to boost domestic consumption.

Currently there are 10 national holidays a year. May Day, National Day and the Spring Festival have three days each and the fourth holiday is New Year's Day.

Millions of people travel during the holidays. Tourism revenues reportedly increased from 14.1 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) during the National Day holiday in 1999 to 64.2 billion yuan during Golden Week last month. Complaints about overcrowding, poor service, a scarcity of hotel rooms and damage to scenic spots, especially historic sites, have spurred debates about the merit of Golden Week holidays.

"The current holiday system does not accord with the long-standing customs of Chinese people," said Liu Quili, president of the Chinese Folklore Society.

Huang Tao, an associate professor of the Renmin University of China, said the most effective way to protect cultural festivals was to make them into holidays so people would learn to understand their importance.

Tomb-Sweeping Day usually occurs on April 4 or April 5 and was established by a Chinese emperor in memory of a official who sacrificed his life more than 2,500 years ago.

The Dragon Boat Festival has been celebrated for thousands of years to commemorate Qu Yuan, a Chinese patriot and poet, who lived during the Warring States period (475 to 221 BC).

The Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the eighth month on the lunar calendar, is considered to be a time for family reunions.