Chinese celebrate Spring Festival in new ways as millions stay put

Moving online

Ye Sifan, who works in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, decided not to return to her hometown in north China's Hebei Province. Instead, she celebrated the festival with two other colleagues by booking a table for New Year's Eve dinner through a food delivery platform.

"I got a seven-course meal for 398 yuan (about 61.65 U.S. dollars), which is a decent New Year's Eve dinner," Ye said.

Traditionally, the dinner is homemade or enjoyed together with families at restaurants. This year, however, a new trend with the surging popularity of semi-finished products and online offerings has been seen.

According to statistics from China's major online food delivery platform Ele.me in early February, the number of brands and stores offering New Year's Eve dinner sets surged by 164 percent and 260 percent, respectively, compared with the same period last year.

The number of New Year's Eve dinner sets that were offered surged nearly three times compared with the figure last year.

More people have also opted to shop online for the Spring Festival.

China's Ministry of Commerce launched a campaign in late January to promote online shopping by offering online vouchers for the Spring Festival.

In Hunan Province, online sales have exceeded 9.8 billion yuan since the launch of the campaign, up 14.7 percent year on year, according to the provincial department of commerce.