Schoolchildren across Suzhou swapped lessons for a five-day break beginning this weekend, the first autumn break the city has ever given them, with free canal boat rides, museum childcare and open garden gates laid on to fill the long lesson-free days.
苏州全市中小学生从本周末起告别课堂，迎来为期五天的假期，这是该市有史以来的第一个秋假；运河游船免费乘坐、博物馆托管服务和对外开放的园林大门，都已备好，帮孩子们把假期填满。
Classes stopped on Saturday 14 November and shall resume on Thursday 19 November. Monday to Wednesday are the break proper, attached to the weekend on either side.
课程从11月14日周六起停止，11月19日周四恢复。周一至周三是正式的秋假，前后与周末相连。
It is not the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is already a national public holiday, and Suzhou is far from the first place in China to try it. Hangzhou introduced spring and autumn breaks in 2004; Zhejiang rolled them out across the whole province in October 2025, and Sichuan did the same last year. By September 2026 fourteen provincial-level regions had adopted them, though Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen had not.
这并不是中秋节，中秋本就是全国法定假日；苏州也远不是全国最早尝试的地方。杭州早在2004年就设立了春假和秋假；浙江于2025年10月在全省铺开，四川去年也已全省实行。截至2026年9月，已有十四个省级地区推行，但北京、上海、广州和深圳尚未采用。
Three Days Carved from Existing Time
从现有时间里“挤”出的三天
What is new is Jiangsu. The province’s Education Department issued a notice on improving school holiday arrangements, setting a spring break and an autumn break of three days each. Spring falls between April and May and autumn between October and November; schools choose within those windows, and city and district education bureaus publish the exact dates.
新的是江苏。江苏省教育厅发布《优化中小学假期安排》通知，设立春假和秋假，各为三天；春假在4月至5月，秋假在10月至11月，由学校在这一区间内自行选择，具体日期由各市、区教育部门公布。
Suzhou’s compulsory-education schools settled on 16 to 18 November. Most of southern Jiangsu, including Nanjing, Wuxi and Changzhou, share those dates. Xuzhou, Lianyungang and Huai’an break around 18 to 22 November, while Nantong and Zhenjiang wait until 26 to 30 November.
苏州义务教育阶段学校选定11月16日至18日。苏南大部分城市，包括南京、无锡和常州，日期与苏州相同；徐州、连云港和淮安在11月18日至22日前后放假，南通和镇江则要等到11月26日至30日。
As elsewhere in China, the days are not extra. They come out of existing flexible time, so the school year is no longer, and schools are expected to offer free supervision for pupils whose parents cannot be at home. Written homework over the break is discouraged.
与全国其他地方一样，这几天并非额外增加的假期，而是从原有的弹性时间中调出，学年总时长不变；对于父母无法在家照看的学生，学校应提供免费托管，也不鼓励布置书面作业。
The policy has critics. Teachers end up on rotating duty to run the supervision, working parents often cannot take leave on the same days, and a family trip can cost more than a normal week. Shenzhen has said it has no policy support for the idea. China’s official rumour-debunking platform has also pointed out that autumn breaks are neither a national uniform holiday nor a statutory one, and that nobody is obliged to pay for a trip.
这项政策也有批评者。教师要轮流值班负责托管，上班的父母往往无法在同一时间请假，一次家庭出游的花费也可能高于平常的一周。深圳曾表示，该市没有这方面的政策支持。官方辟谣平台也指出，秋假既不是全国统一放假，也不是法定假日，更没有人被要求必须花钱出游。
Free Boats, Gates and Museum Care
免费的船、免费的门与博物馆托管
Suzhou has tried to answer the supervision problem with something more imaginative than a classroom. Suzhou Museum is running one-day custody sessions in its West Building for ¥75, including meals and a study guide. Children aged 7 to 9 attend on 16 and 18 November and those aged 10 to 12 on 17 November, from 9.30am to 4pm, with just 15 places per session.
苏州试图用比教室更有想象力的方式来回应托管难题。苏州博物馆在西馆开设一日托管课程，收费75元，含餐食和学习手册。7至9岁的孩子安排在11月16日和18日，10至12岁的孩子安排在11月17日，时间为上午9点30分至下午4点，每场仅15个名额。
Other doors open for nothing. Pan Gate admits primary and middle-school pupils free with ID from 14 to 18 November, and one adult may bring up to two students, though the adult pays. Students ride the Grand Canal boats free over the same dates, and Yiyou Art Museum is free from 15 to 18 November. Suzhou Museum itself stays open until 8pm from 13 to 17 November.
另有不少地方免费开放。11月14日至18日，中小学生凭证件可免费进入盘门景区，一名成年人最多可带两名学生，但成人需购票；学生在同一时段可免费乘坐大运河游船，怡游美术馆11月15日至18日免费开放。苏州博物馆在11月13日至17日也延长开放至晚上8点。
The discounts run further down the list. At Tianping Mountain, children under 1.4 metres enter free with an adult and those aged 6 to 18 pay half price. Jinxi lets a student in free when two companions come along, with 20 percent off for the rest, and Qiandeng halves the price for students. Caoxieshan Archaeological Site Park is free, and several gardens and wetland sites admit under-16s free through 30 November.
折扣名单还很长。天平山对1.4米以下儿童在成人陪同下免费，6至18岁半价；锦溪景区对学生免票，但需两名同行者，同行者享八折；千灯古镇对学生半价；草鞋山遗址公园免费开放，另有若干园林和湿地景点对16岁以下未成年人免费，持续至11月30日。
Beyond Suzhou, Jiangsu has published 52 provincial study-trip routes under a scheme called “a million students tour Jiangsu”, and Suzhou has marked out ten themed research sites of its own.
在苏州之外，江苏发布了52条省级研学线路，推出“百万学子游江苏”活动，苏州自己也划定了十处主题研学点。
Lessons resume on Thursday 19 November, and the five days Suzhou’s pupils have just spent away from them will not come again this school year in autumn form. The next break on the calendar is the spring one, due between April and May.
课程将于11月19日周四恢复，苏州学生刚刚度过的这五天，本学年不会再以秋假的形式出现。日历上的下一个假期是春假，时间在4月至5月之间。
