Traditional Spring Festival holiday picks up new ways of spending

Celebrating the Chinese New Year is getting easier, healthier, and more fun as one of the world's traditional holidays is seeing new modes of dining, shopping, and family gatherings.

The key term for this year's Spring Festival holiday will be "consumption upgrade," with higher-quality products and services gaining popularity, according to Wang Bingnan, vice minister of commerce.

While meals at family gatherings previously included all kinds of meat, many Chinese are now more interested in organic foods, green vegetables, and other healthy products, Wang pointed out.

Meanwhile, more families are choosing to dine outside their homes or order dishes online to save more quality time to spend with family. Over 90 percent of the New Year's Eve set meals available at restaurants have been pre-booked.

Total earnings of retail and catering enterprises are expected to surge by 10 percent year on year to reach 900 billion yuan (about $143 billion ) during the week-long Spring Festival holiday starting Feb 15, according to Wang.

The popularity of e-commerce has made trips home easier as many travellers have their special holiday purchases, some even from overseas, delivered to their homes via e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba's Taobao and JD.com.

About ten courier companies have decided to keep their express delivery services running during the holiday as online shopping has become a habit for Chinese consumers.

While the Spring Festival centers on gatherings of family and friends, many people are trying to include new activities to make it more interesting.

Over ten domestic movies will debut during the Spring Festival holiday, while sales of skiing equipment rose more than 30 percent ahead of the holiday.