Editor's note: Liu Chunsheng is an associate professor of Central University of Finance and Economics in China as well as deputy dean of Blue Source Capital Research Institute. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
The Spring Festival is the most important festival for Chinese people around the world. As Chinese culture is gradually accepted by the rest of the world, the influence of the Spring Festival is also expanding. The U.S. state of California, for example, has made the Spring Festival an official local holiday.
In recent years, a series of new changes have taken place in the Chinese New Year, and people's consumption patterns, as well as methods of celebration and entertainment, are transforming.
During the 2019 Spring Festival holiday, the sales of retail and catering enterprises nationwide increased by 8.5 percent compared with last year, marking the first trillion yuan milestone.
During the Spring Festival, going to the restaurant to order the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner has become a choice for more and more people. The sales of catering enterprises in Beijing increased by over 10 percent year-on-year.
There are also many catering companies and online platforms that offer finished products and semi-finished products for dinner, or cooking services for the Chinese New Year's Eve dinners. The order volume of some large-scale take-away platforms has increased over 100 percent.
During the Spring Festival, some people choose to return to their hometowns and reunite with their relatives and friends. Others choose to celebrate the holiday by traveling.
According to data from the China Tourism Academy, the total number of national tourism receptions in the 2019 Spring Festival holiday was 415 million times, up 7.6 percent year-on-year; the tourism income was 513.9 billion yuan, up 8.2 percent year-on-year.
Sanya, in south China's Hainan Province, received more than 800,000 tourists in the first six days of the holiday; while my hometown in Inner Mongolia received 4.762 million tourists, an increase of 14.6 percent. Celebrating Spring Festival by traveling overseas has also become a new trend, especially among young people.
This has also led to the growth of overseas consumption during the holiday. Besides the traditional popular tourist destinations such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and China's Taiwan, countries along the "Belt and Road" have emerged as hot destinations.
Watching movies has turned into the most popular form of entertainment during the Spring Festival. China's national movie box office revenue reached 5.84 billion yuan during the 2019 Spring Festival, an increase of 1.2 percent over the same period last year, breaking the record again.
During the Spring Festival, spending on entertainment such as drama, movies, and concerts rose by 100 percent compared with the holiday in 2018.
With the popularization of the concept of healthy living, many Chinese people choose to celebrate the Spring Festival holiday by doing sports. Mountain climbing, walking, skating, and other sports are all new styles of celebrating the Chinese New Year.
Owing to China's economic growth, income growth and consumption upgrading, Chinese shopping methods also showed some new features. The sales of green food, smart home appliances, and electronic products grew rapidly, and online consumption, customized consumption and experience economy have become well accepted. Services in the fields of insurance, education and even plastic surgery have appeared on gift lists of many Chinese people.
In the Spring Festival of 2019, major e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, Jingdong, and Suning have continued to provide services to customers. There are even more than 6 million overseas Chinese buying products via Tmall.
With snowfall in Beijing, the 2019 Spring Festival holiday has come to an end. A new year with hope and happiness has approached. Good luck to China. Good luck to all Chinese people.
