Shanghai on Wednesday, the first day of 2025, kicked off a month-long shopping season from the New Year's Day to the Spring Festival, with commercial circles in the city creating a wide variety of scenarios to innovate shoppers' experience.
Running until Feb 4--the end of the eight-day break during the Spring Festival holiday, the shopping season in Shanghai will see districts roll out hundreds of promotional activities to boost consumer spending and attract more visitors to the commercial circles by organizing public entertainment activities and exhibitions.
Authorities of the vigorously developing Pudong New Area in Shanghai said their focus is to boost New Year consumption by integrating business, tourism and cultural activities.
The district has released details of more than one hundred event with that theme.
"Through joint operation of business, tourism and cultural activities, we can push our consumers to consume, and bring more concessions to our consumers, to create a different shopping environment for our consumers in the New Year," said Cao Lei, deputy director of the Commission of Commerce of the Pudong New Area.
The Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year,is China's grandest traditional festival when people return to their hometowns for celebrations and family reunion. It falls on January 29 this year and the public holiday will start from the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Shanghai rolls out activity packages to promote holiday consumption
As the Spring Festival approaches, north and east China are experiencing a surge in demand for traditional delicacies, including vinegar and intricately decorated steamed buns.
The Laba Festival, which falls on Jan 7, is just around the corner. In celebration, residents in Taiyuan City, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, flocked to a well-known vinegar shop to fill their containers with vinegar - a time-honored tradition marking the occasion.
The Laba Festival, literally the eighth day of the 12th month on the Chinese lunar calendar, is considered a prelude to the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year.
As a longstanding custom during the festival, locals bring their own containers, mainly large buckets and jars, to fill with freshly made vinegar.
"The tradition of preparing vinegar for the Laba Festival has been passed down through generations. Folks here love buying the freshly made, time-honored brands, because the hot vinegar tastes especially good," said Liu Xiaojing, a staff member at a local vinegar company.
"The vinegar is still hot. I can still feel the warmth. This is an old brand, and I've been eating it since I was a child. It has a long history," said Huo Yanzhen, a local resident.
Steamed buns with colorful patterns are also experiencing a surge in sales in Qingdao City of east China's Shandong Province. These creative buns, a must-have for many families in the area, are flying off the shelves as shops ramp up both online and offline efforts, stocking up to meet the demand of the pre-festival sales boom.
At a local steamed bun shop, workers were busy preparing 3,000 kilograms of fish-shaped buns. These buns are particularly popular during this time of year, as fish symbolize good fortune and wealth in Chinese culture.
"Sales have definitely picked up since New Year's Day. We're selling about 2,000 to 3,000 jin (about 1,000 to 1,500 kilograms) daily, and we expect to sell nearly 100,000 jin (about 50,000 kilograms) over the next month," said Lu Haiyan, the shop owner.
"Older people nowadays don't like food that are too sweet. They prefer traditional Chinese pastries like these, which are made with healthy ingredients. They're good for the body, so we prefer them," said a local resident.
In addition to the offline sales, the shop has embraced online marketing, posting short videos of their decorative buns on social media platforms.
The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, falls on Jan. 29 this year and the Spring Festival holiday will last until Feb. 4. It is China's most important festival and an occasion for family reunion.
Sales of traditional delicacies surge ahead of Spring Festival
