Charity dinner canceled

Starting this year, there will be no more annual Capital Philanthropy Day dinner, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

In 2008, the Beijing government designated December 3 as Capital Philanthropy Day and began holding an annual dinner and festival on that day. The cost of hosting the dinner - about 300 million yuan ($490,500) every year - was funded by lottery revenue. In accordance with the austerity policies announced last year by President Xi Jinping, there will be no dinners in the future, said Cheng Liyan, the director of charity work at the Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau. Instead, donation booths will be set up at subway stations to call for citizen participation.