A national internet survey claimed nearly 70 per cent of participants welcomed a controversial draft plan to scrap the week-long Labour Day holiday released by Beijing authorities last week, while experts questioned the study's methodology. Sixty-seven per cent of 1.85 million online participants supported the proposal to eliminate the 'golden week' in May and replace it with separate traditional festivals, Xinhua reported yesterday. But social policy and data experts argued the online survey format and the questionnaire's design may have skewed results. 'The government should be given credit for seeking public consultation but they're not being professional enough in the practice,' Tang Jun, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying by China Youth Daily yesterday. 'There are some very noticeable flaws in the survey's methodology.' Conducting the survey online would result in insufficient representation of the country's migrant workers, most of whom could not afford personal computers or even to use internet cafes, Mr Tang said. Cancellation of 'golden week' would hit many migrant workers, because it was the time when they were needed most in their hometowns. 'May is the season when farmers in north China harvest wheat while farmers in south China plant rice,' Mr Tang said. The government should have consulted disadvantaged groups whose opinions often went unnoticed, he added. Shu Shengxiang, a Hangzhou-based data analyst, said the wording of the questions was misleading because they did not specify 'the scrapping' of the Labour Day 'golden week'. Participants were asked whether they were willing to have more traditional events - the Ching Ming, Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn festivals - on the public holiday calendar, by shortening the Labour Day holiday by two days. 'It's kind of manipulative to frame your question this way, because most people would say yes to it,' Mr Shu told the paper. Bi Shicheng, a Beijing-based social critic, said the government could get a real feel of public opinion on the issue by going a little beyond the simple yes or no option and digging deeper than the online forum. People had already expressed 'a massive amount of doubt' in chat rooms since the National Development and Reform Commission revealed its draft plan last Friday, he said. The new plan also suggested the number of official holidays be increased from 10 days to 11 days and the start of the three-day Lunar New Year holiday be brought forward by one day to include the Lunar New Year's Eve. Those changes looked to have gone down well with the public, having gained more than 80 per cent support among online participants, Xinhua said. Taking the pulse The national online survey on the proposal to scrap 'golden week' in May received input from this many netizens 1.85m