Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 31, Title: Vibrant and many highlights - Observation of the first-line consumption market during the Spring Festival

Xinhua News Agency reporters Li Ziwei, Chen Aiping, and Lang Bingbing

The Spring Festival is the peak consumption season. During this Spring Festival, traditional consumption such as catering and culture and tourism are full of vitality. New consumption highlights such as visiting first stores, chasing competitions, and sending millet are many, and consumption promotion policies such as purchasing new subsidies have even "added a lot of fire" to the market.

Career consumption, with the rising atmosphere of fireworks, is a beautiful scenery of the Spring Festival market.

It is hard to find a table, and it is the "new normal" of many restaurants during the Spring Festival. Shanghai Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street, Xinya Guangdong Restaurant has been lively from the New Year's Eve to the third year of junior high school, and has already booked it for the next few days of holidays.

"On New Year's Eve, there were 91 tables of New Year's Eve dinner in the private room and the hall, and it was full of seats." Huang Renkang, executive chef of Xinya Cantonese Restaurant, introduced that since the small New Year's Eve market, the booking volume has increased by 30% year-on-year.

On January 28, people had New Year's Eve dinner in a hotel in Fanchang District, Wuhu City, Anhui Province. Xinhua News Agency (photo taken by Xiao Benxiang)

Along with the Spring Festival, catering consumption has ushered in rapid growth. Haidilao backstage data shows that in Nantong, Jiangsu, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Haidilao Hotpot Haimen Longxin Plaza store had a turnover rate of more than 10 rounds.

Online data is also red. Dingdong Maicai will not close during the Spring Festival in the eighth year. Judging from the product data, from the day before New Year's Eve to the second day of the Chinese New Year, the demand for New Year's Eve dinner, visits to relatives and friends, and dinners at home has prompted Dingdong Maicai to increase sales of fresh aquatic products, meat, fruit gift boxes, etc., and the overall sales of pork products increased by 2 times.

During the Spring Festival holiday, some popular attractions reappeared in the scene of "people follow the crowd", and cultural and tourism consumption is booming.

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, there are many tourists on the old streets of Dayang Ancient Town, Jincheng City, Shanxi Province. The sounds of shouting and hawking and the music of folk fire exhibitions are mixed together, filled with a strong New Year atmosphere.

Yan Wenhong, the stationmaster of Dayang Town Cultural Station, introduced that during the Spring Festival, the ancient town prepared all-day performances such as Bayin Club and Shangdang Bangzi, which attracted a large number of tourists. The number of tourists on the first day of the Lunar New Year exceeds 50,000, and the third day of the Lunar New Year is expected to reach more than 30,000.

On January 30, tourists were watching a folk fire performance in the scenic area of ​​Dayang Ancient Town. (Photo provided by Dayang Town Cultural Station)

Meituan Travel Data shows that three days before the Spring Festival holiday, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Harbin, Kunming and other cities with the highest popularity of tourism. During this Spring Festival, young people are popular in "in-depth tourism" in small southern cities, and cost-effective county tourism continues to be popular. As the first Spring Festival to successfully apply for World Heritage, visiting the Lantern Festival and Temple Fair is the highlight of experiencing the New Year customs. The search popularity of the national "Lantern Festival" and "Temple Fair" increased by 217% month-on-month on the three days before the Spring Festival.

Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of Shanghai Spring and Autumn Tourism, said that as of now, the number of bookings and revenue indicators of Spring and Autumn Tourism in 2025 have exceeded the same period last year, with the total number of visitors increasing by nearly 20%. Fliggy data shows that in the past week, the number of bookings for domestic high-star hotels on the platform has increased by more than 40% year-on-year.

For many people, watching movies has become a New Year custom. Myths and legends, suspense detectives...The Spring Festival movies are rich in categories.

The box office on the first day of the Lunar New Year was 1.805 billion yuan, with the number of viewers of 35.1512 million, creating a new single-day box office and moviegoers. According to Maoyan list data, as of 16:00 on January 31, the total box office of new films in the 2025 Spring Festival reached 4.429 billion yuan.

Just before the Spring Festival, the new subsidy policy for purchases of mobile phones, tablets, and smart watches (bracelets) was implemented nationwide, with a national subsidy of 15% and a maximum subsidy of 500 yuan for mobile phone products.

On New Year's Eve, Ms. Li, a citizen of Taiyuan, took advantage of this round of national subsidy and placed an order of her long-awaited smartwatch as a New Year gift to her father. "In addition to merchant activities, the watch with an original price of 1,400 yuan was discounted by nearly 300 yuan, which is very cost-effective!"

The subsidy policy has been strengthened and the consumer market has been heated. Tmall data shows that as of 24:00 on January 30, the transaction volume of mobile phone categories increased by more than 50% year-on-year in the three days before the Spring Festival (New Year's Eve, the first and second day of the Chinese New Year). Up to now, a total of 15 provinces and cities have fully launched Tmall mobile phone subsidy activities. During the Spring Festival, four new provinces and cities were added, including Guangdong, Beijing, Anhui and Shaanxi.

New consumption such as first stores, sports, millet and other products are cleverly integrated with festivals, and the popularity continues to rise.

Walking into Wenheyou’s first store in Shanxi, "Zhonglou Street 1990", the classic life scene in Taiyuan City in the 1990s was condensed into a 6,966 square meters space, and historical memories and the fireworks in the city came to their faces. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, lion dance and intangible cultural heritage exhibitions are also arranged here. Wang Qiang, general manager of Zhonglou Street Cultural Tourism Development Company, said that since New Year's Eve, the number of people entering the store on "Zhonglou Street 1990" has exceeded 20,000 every day, and many consumers have their families come to experience it.

The north is frozen and has not affected sports consumption. On the 31st, the International Snow Federation's Vancouver Obstacle Chase World Cup officially began. 19 teams and more than 100 athletes from all over the world held a passionate competition at the Beidahu Ski Resort in the Ice and Snow Experimental Zone of Jilin City, Jilin Province, attracting many families to come to watch the game and take vacation. "Watching competitions, skiing, celebrating festivals, nothing is delayed!" said Ms. Li, a tourist from Beijing.

The relevant person in charge of the resort said that during the Spring Festival, the Beida Lake Ski Resort is expected to receive 87,000 tourists, a year-on-year increase of 31%, and a tourism revenue of 51.18 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 40%.

Mr. Qin, a native of Jincheng, likes the domestic 3A game "Black Myth: Wukong". This Spring Festival, he received a black mythical fire rayon from his wife, black clouds and weaving blanket.

Based on derivatives of copyrighted works such as animation, comics, games, etc., the market size of the "Mulberry Economy" is growing rapidly. On January 15, Tmall Black Myth official flagship store opened. In the past half month, more than 2,000 pieces of this blanket have been sold.

Yi Spring Festival, the prosperous festival market reflects the resilience and vitality of China's economy.