Workers of the world unite! The official version of China's 2016 public holiday calendar was released last night and contains mercifully few weekend working days.

What's also notable is we now can officially declare 2015's out-of-the-blue WWII victory celebrations a one-off, as there is nothing marking the anniversary in the 2016 calendar. (Mark your calendars now for 2025, when maybe we'll celebrate the 80th anniversary of crushing the fascists).

Here we break down China's 2016 official holiday dates for the Year of the Monkey:

January 1-3: New Year's Day arrives on a Friday, and adding the weekend makes a "three-day holiday" (ha ha, nice try officials. It's just a one-day holiday really, isn't it). Kind of a bummer we don't get more time off, but hey, we won't want to get too hedonistic to kick off 2016.

February 7-13: Spring Festival/Chinese New Year begins on the night of February 7, and results in a seven-day, inclusive holiday, with everyone going back to work on ... you guessed it, Valentine's Day. which is a Sunday. We can hear the groans from the F&B community already. Sounds about right. February 6, a Saturday, is a make-up work day.

April 2-4: Qingming/Tomb Sweeping Festival gives us a nice spring three-day weekend, which we can enjoy without needing to be forced to take a make-up day. We can smell the exhaust from the six-hour traffic jam back from Huairou already.

May 1-2: May 1/Labor Day Holiday is on a Sunday in 2016, and the Ministry of Fun-Making has mercifully granted us an extra Monday off. The workers thank you, and we'll see you at Chaoyang Park for Beijing's biggest mass picnic.

June 9-11: Duan Wu Jie or Dragon Boat Festival falls Thursday through Saturday, with a make-up on Sunday. Wander Houhai, eat some zongzi. Enjoy.

September 15-17: The Mid-Autumn Festival is another Thursday-Friday-Saturday deal with Sunday a make-up day. True hedonists will carefully arrange to take their annual leave on the following 10 working days, thus connecting this to the Oct 1 holiday for 23 consecutive days of merry-making.

October 1-7: Ahh. National Day. Suck it, America, with your paltry single day off on July 4. We get seven days, which is more than enough to ease the sting of having to make it up with weekend work days on the following weekend, Oct 8-9.

Now go! Plan your holidays before tickets get tight!

Photo: cutearoo.com, the Beijinger