During the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, key retail and catering enterprises nationwide posted combined sales revenue of CNY821 billion, up 28.7% year-on-year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said. Chinese tourists showed more interest in nearby destinations. In Beijing, there was a 730% increase in the number of in-city sightseeing, at 4.91 million, Beijing municipal tourism authorities said. Parks and winter sports venues in China’s cosmopolitan cities witnessed dense crowds unseen in other years and cinemas filled up. Online sales were brisk with the Chinese express delivery sector having delivered 365 million parcels in the first five days of the weeklong holidays, up 224% over the same period last year. China’s transportation sector handled 77.24 million passengers during the first six days of the Spring Festival holidays, including 17.47 million railway trips and 54.82 million road trips.

In response to government advice to “stay put” and avoid gatherings, many people chose to celebrate the most important festival of the year in the towns and cities where they live and work instead of going back to their hometown for family reunions. Lian Ping, Director of the Zhixin Investment Research Institute, estimated that between one-quarter and one-third of migrant workers heeded the calls to stay in the cities and shun holiday travel. 

On-demand delivery platform Dada said that orders where the sender and the receiver are not in the same city doubled from last year as people sent gifts to family and friends in rural areas. Many orders came from Guangdong province where a large number of migrant workers are staying. According to online takeout platform Eleme.com, takeout orders for hot pot and milk tea increased by over 200% this year. There was also a 60% increase in the sales of gastrointestinal drugs and a 150% rise in sales of hangover remedies, Eleme data showed, as Chinese people would choose to eat rich food at dinner parties during the holidays. As consumption contributes about 65% of China’s economic growth, some believe robust holiday sales bode well for the economy in the coming months, paving the way for good first quarter and whole year figures. 

As one of the most important shopping seasons, the Spring Festival Golden Week holidays saw sales revenues topping CNY1 trillion for the retail and catering sectors in 2019, one year before the virus struck. The country also received 415 million tourists during that period. In 2020, the sudden outbreak of the virus and China’s containment measures resulted in a 20.5% year-on-year drop in retail sales in January and February. Retail sales during the festival this year rose 28.7% year-on-year to reach CNY821 billion, data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said. Online sales exceeded CNY122 billion, with online catering sales surging 135% from last year as more Chinese ordered ready-to-eat meals through e-commerce or online food delivery platforms. Sales of imported chocolate on Tmall Global jumped this month for Valentine’s Day. Sales of imported chocolate increased by 337% year-on-year from February 4 to 15, with candy made in the UAE, Switzerland and Japan among the hottest items.

Sales by jewelry and clothing enterprises rose respectively by 160.8% and 107.1%, communication device and digital home appliance sales rose respectively by 39% and 29.9%, and sales of fitness devices by some e-commerce platforms increased 49% from a year ago. Cinema box office revenues during the 2021 Spring Festival holiday (February 11-17) exceeded CNY7.8 billion, up 32.5% from 2019, with new records set for ticket sales and attendance during the holiday, data from the China Film Administration showed.

The Chinese economy is forecast to grow by 8.2%, its fastest rate in nine years in 2021, as other major economies will likely continue to bear the brunt of the pandemic, according to a Global Times poll of 20 economists released in December. In its latest World Economic Outlook in January, the IMF projected China’s economy will grow 8.1% in 2021 while figure for the global economy is expected to be 5.5%, the Global Times reports. Ipsos’ February index of global consumer confidence noted that China’s consumer index surged 6.5 points year-on-year to 71.8 for February 2021, the largest growth among the 24 monitored economies. In comparison, the U.S.’ consumer sentiment index decreased by 12.6 points in February from one year earlier, the largest drop among all countries.