Market for Christmas trees dropping this year

Dutch tourists, well protected against the bitter cold, soak up the Christmas spirit in Beijing on Monday. ZOU HONG / CHINA DAILY

Although plastic Christmas trees are more popular in Beijing, many retailers complained about a sluggish market this year.

In the Laitai Flower Market, also in the embassy area of Beijing, retailers set up temporary booths selling only Christmas goods. These booths run for about one month before Christmas.

"In past years, there were more than 15 of these Christmas booths. But this year it has dropped to nine," said Zhang Hongjing, a businesswoman who has a factory in the Tongzhou district, the southeastern suburb of Beijing.

"We sell four to five plastic trees at most in one day. And zero sales is common for us," said Wang Dongsheng, who also runs a booth here.

Although the market is not as busy as previous years, it is not completely desolate. More people are turning to buying less expensive, plastic Christmas trees.

Yang Zhenhua, who runs a party shop in Shanghai's Jinqiao, an expat community, said he had sold about 50 plastic Christmas trees by Christmas Eve.

He noted half of his customers are Chinese.

"It is very common for Chinese people to celebrate Christmas nowadays," Yang said. The best-seller in his shop is a plastic Christmas tree, up to 1.5 meters, priced between 100 and 200 yuan.

Many expats fly home before Christmas. But the city is still in the mood for a grand celebration.

Twinkling lights, lovely trees decorated with candy canes and snowflakes, and shining reindeer have brought festivities to almost every posh shopping mall. And more Chinese people nowadays are eager to decorate their houses for the Western festival.

"It is such a good chance for friends to gather, for sharing our stories about the past year," said Sherry Li, a 29-year accountant in a foreign investment company. Li spent two years in the US for her postgraduate degree.

Frantz Lallenent, from France, also bought a plastic Christmas tree to decorate her new living room in Lujiazui, the financial center in Shanghai, as she always did when back in France.

"It keeps longer than a real tree. And it won't be wasted as I can reuse it next year," she said.

Lallenent said she feels a bustling and energetic atmosphere in Shanghai.

"It is like any European city, and I do not feel homesick at all here," she said.

Zhu Lingqing in Shanghai contributed to the story.