Talking about holiday plans in Chinese: 十一 and 自驾游

Two colleagues, a couple of weeks before the October holiday.

The conversation

What makes it sound real

十一 is a holiday, not a number

十一 means “eleven”, but here it means October 1st, China’s National Day, and the week off that comes with it. Holidays are often named after their dates: 五一 is the May Day break, 十一 is the October one. The textbook word is 国庆节. At work and among friends, people just say 十一.

• 你十一回家吗？ (Are you going home for the October holiday?)

• 五一人太多了，哪儿都不想去。 (Everywhere is packed over May Day, I don’t want to go anywhere.)

自驾游 doesn’t mean driving from home

A 自驾游 is a trip where you drive yourself around a region instead of joining a tour group. It says nothing about how you get there. Xinjiang is almost 3,000 km from Beijing by road, so most people fly to 乌鲁木齐 (Ürümqi) and rent a car. That’s why the question is whether B drives all the way or flies first and rents.

飞过去, 开车过去

Classes teach 坐飞机去, “take a plane to go”. In conversation the way of travelling goes in front of 过去, “over there”: 飞过去, 开车过去, 坐高铁过去. 飞 on its own is enough. For coming towards the speaker it’s 过来: 你怎么过来？ (How are you getting here?)

不然太累了

不然 means “otherwise”, and it lets B skip half the sentence. The full thought would be “if I drove all the way, it would be too tiring”. 不然 points back at the option she isn’t taking, and 太…了 finishes the complaint.