An official of China's tourism authority stated recently that the government is encouraging employees to provide a two-and-half day long weekend during hot summer days, Chinanews.com reported Tuesday.

This encouragement comes with the understanding that the weekend will start on Friday afternoon.

In an ongoing survey conducted by sina.com.cn, nearly 80 percent of the estimated 30,000 respondents believe a two-and-half day long weekend is feasible.

China is now carrying out a paid holiday policy which was promulgated in 2008. The policy stipulated that employers working for more than one year and less than ten years can enjoy five-day paid holiday, those who have worked more than ten years and less than twenty years can enjoy ten-day paid holiday, and those who have worked for more than twenty years can have 15-day paid holiday.

However, though the State Council has emphasized the implementation of the paid holiday policy five times this year, half of the employers, mainly small and medium sized as well as private companies, still refuse to offer paid holidays for their employees in order to save their costs.

As employees are afraid of losing their job, most of them will not argue with their companies if they have been refused to have paid holidays.

Liu Simin, an official from the Beijing Tourism Association, explained that a lack of supervision and punishment has led to the poor implementation of the paid holiday policy.

Both the paid holiday policy and the two-and-half day long weekend statement are efforts in a move to boost the current slow economic growth.