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Catering will boom during the Chinese Spring Festival, experts said after researching dinner reservations for the lunar New Year's Eve on Feb 2. [Full story]

Related readings:
 Ready to serve   New Year luxury on the menu for a price
 Grand feast shows most dishes in multiple venues

Wang Dezhu (L1) and his family have their New Year's Eve dinner at home in Hangu district, Tianjin, 1953. [Photo/Xinhua]

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A customer chooses clothes at a shopping mall at Zhongguancun, Beijing, Jan 23, 2011. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

Chen Xiaocui tries on the New Year clothes her mother made for her in 1954. [Photo/Xinhua]

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The photo shows consumers selecting laptops on Jan 2, 2011. [Photo/CFP]

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Customers choose special offerings for the Spring Festival in a supermarket in Yichang, Hubei province, Jan 25, 2011. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

The photo shows people selecting a black and white TV set in a state-owned shop in the 1980s [Photo/File photo]

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The subsidiary foodstuff store on Liuxue Road, Xuanwu district offers shop-on-wheels service during the Spring Festival in Beijing in 1958. [Photo/Xinhua]

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A woman shops at a Chinese new year merchandising market in downtown Shanghai Jan 17, 2011. Hundreds of millions of Chinese geared up to welcome the Year of the Rabbit next Feb 3, packing temple fairs, entertainment parks, setting off fireworks and firecrackers and hurrying to train and bus stations to get home for the traditional holiday. [Photo/Agencies]

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Passengers are waiting for a high-speed train to Shanghai at Changzhou Station in Zhejiang province on Jan 23, 2011. [Photo/Asianewsphoto] 

The photo shows passengers trying to get onto a hard-seat train for trips back home before the spring festival in the 1990s. [Photo/File photo]

   Travelling 

Our packages to the US sold fairly well in 2010, along with a 100-percent increase in tourist numbers. The traditional routes in the US include trips to East and West Coast states and the offshore state of Hawaii. However, more diversified tours are emerging to meet mainland travelers' needs, including shopping spree tours or tours connected with special events, such as Chinese New Year or NBA games. [Full story]

I never imagined such a big surge in travel to Europe this year. Zhang Xiaojun, assistant general manager of Beijing Ctrip International Travel Agency said the top three destinations are France, Switzerland and Italy. However, countries such as Germany and Greece, which were less popular in the past, have also performed well in China's overseas travel market in the first nine months of this year, he said. [Full story]

Some travel agencies have completely sold out of trips during the coming Spring Festival holiday, Qilu Evening News reported on Jan 21. Trips to Hainan province are sold out during the festival hoildays, even with prices starting from 4,888 yuan ($742), a staffer at a Linyi travel agency in Shandong province told the paper on Jan 20. The tourism market this winter seems to be doing extremely well, said Sun Bo, vice general manager of Linyi International Travel Agency.

   Investing

Some at family gatherings not who they appear to be

Every year, newspapers in January report the latest examples of a modern tradition with decidedly Chinese characteristics.

Single men and women in their 20s and 30s across China post Internet ads to hire a make-believe girlfriend or boyfriend to meet mom and dad for this country's most important holiday for getting together with relatives. [Full story]

I'll pay you to be my valentine

Liu Zhi (not his real name ), 36, surfed websites furiously in the days leading up to the Spring Festival.

The engineer took his girlfriend-on-rent back to his hometown Yueyang, in Hunan province, paying her 1,500 yuan ($219.5) for four days. [Full story]