Chinese spend more during Spring Festival, in some new ways

Perhaps the biggest success story is the film industry, as China emerged as the world's second largest film market last year.

This year, the seventh day of the lunar new year coincided with Valentine's Day, giving people more reasons to go to the cinema. From Feb 8 to 13, the box office sales totaled three billion yuan, up 67 percent from last year. The first day saw a record of 660 million yuan of box office income in China, with 19 million viewers celebrating the day in cinemas.

For the first time, Li Jinya, 32, found it hard to reserve a film ticket in her hometown Xianyang, northwestern Shaanxi province. "When I searched online, I found all the tickets sold out," she said. "For three consecutive days, the situation was the same. When I was young, few people in our city watched films and several cinemas went bankrupt."

The method through which Chinese people give hongbao, red packets filled with gift money mainly distributed to children during the Lunar New Year, is also changing as mobile apps offer a digital version.

Internet giant Tencent saw a record high number of digital hongbao given during the holiday. From Feb 7 to 12, digital hongbao were sent and received about 32.1 billion times via Tencent's popular instant messaging app WeChat, nearly 10 times the number recorded last year.

Seniors are also joining in the trend. For the first time, Ji Tongying, 92, sent a hongbao by clicking on her grandson's smart phone. "It is interesting," she said. "I will no longer have to ask my children to draw cash from the bank, and wrap the money with red paper."

Digitizing the tradition has made it easier for the millions of Chinese who are now choosing to travel abroad during the festival instead of visiting home.

According to the National Tourism Administration, tourism revenues during the holiday hit 13.8 billion yuan, up 14.2 percent from last year. Some 5.7 million to 6 million people travelled abroad.

It was 60-year-old Ma Jianping's first time celebrating the traditional holiday away from home. Booking a tour to the southern island province of Hainan, the retiree travelled with her family of seven. "I have more spare time now," she said. "I would like to see more of the outside world, so my son booked the trip for us."

Last year, Ma's monthly pension rose 300 yuan to 3,500 yuan. Her son's salary increased as well.

Despite a slowdown in headline growth, disposable household income enjoyed healthy growth thanks to wage increases and improved legal framework to ensure minimum wages and protect the labor force.

Figures released by the National Statistics Bureau showed that average dispensable income of a Chinese citizen was 21,966 yuan last year, up 8.9 percent from last year. If counting in the change of prices, the rise would be 7.4 percent.

"Life is getting better," Ma said. She plans to visit Hong Kong and Macao this year.

Zhou Chunlong's New Year wish was primarily good health of his family members. "My son just got a new job and I wish him good luck on the post," he said. "Of course I also wish that life for all of us can continue getting better and better."

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