Recently, the General Office of the State Council released the 2013 holiday schedule, with a total of 29 days off across seven holidays for the year. Many netizens are wondering whether small passenger vehicles will enjoy free highway tolls during the New Year's holiday. In response, officials from the Shanghai Road Administration stated that according to previous State Council documents, free highway tolls are only applicable during four holidays: Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Labor Day, and National Day.
It is understood that the seven holidays in 2013 add up to 29 days off. These include 7 days for Spring Festival (February 9–15), 3 days for Labor Day (April 29–May 1), 7 days for National Day (October 1–7), and 3 days each for New Year's Day, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival. After learning the news, many netizens mistakenly believed that highways would offer free tolls for small vehicles during all these holidays and even planned trips during the three-day New Year’s break. Netizen “Princess Qingping” remarked on Weibo: “If highways were free during New Year’s like they are during National Day, I’d love to visit Xi'an.”
Staff from the Shanghai Road Administration informed reporters that according to previous documents (State Council Document [2012] No. 37 and Ministry of Transport Document [2012] No. 376), the free toll period for small passenger vehicles on highways is limited to four national statutory holidays: Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Labor Day, and National Day, as well as the consecutive rest days of these holidays as determined by the State Council General Office documents for that year. This means that in 2013, highways will offer free passage for small vehicles during the 7-day Spring Festival, 3-day Qingming Festival, 3-day Labor Day, and 7-day National Day, while tolls will remain in effect during other holidays.