Business / special coverages

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?

Updated: 2014-01-21 11:17 (chinadaily.com.cn)
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What cost you most for the Spring Festival?*
  • Shopping.
  • Transportation.
  • Hongbao.
  • Travelling.
  • Entertainment.
  • Renting a girlfriend/boyfriend.
  • Others.
How much do you set aside for Spring Festival?
  • Less than 5,000 yuan.
  • 5,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan.
  • 10,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan.
  • 30,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan.
  • More than 50,000 yuan.
The Spring Festival, or chunjie, is the most celebrated of the traditional Chinese holidays. The festival begins on the first day of the first month on the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival, which is the 15th day.

But as festivals have become highly commercialized in recent years, some people feel the financial burdens of the festival due to the suddenly mounting expenses.

The Beijing News surveyed 100 people from different backgrounds and professions.

Sixty-five of them planned to take more than 5,000 yuan ($826) home, with some earmarking 33,000 yuan. Forty-two said the festival spending has become a financial burden.

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?
Shopping

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?
Transportation

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?
Hongbao

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?
Travelling

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?
Entertainment

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?
Renting a girlfriend/boyfriend

Shopping

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?

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Transportation

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?

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Hongbao

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?

For Chinese children, the arrival of Spring Festival brings with it cash-filled red envelopes, but the practice is putting strain on the wallets of adults.

"My annual bonus stayed in my pocket for less than a week before it went out in the form of red envelopes," said Huang Yijing, a 30-year-old nurse from Shanghai, who forked out at least 1,000 yuan ($160) each to her nephews and nieces and gave 500 yuan or more to her friends' children.

Each Chinese New Year, Huang said she spends more than 5,000 yuan, equivalent to her monthly salary, on (hongbao), the red envelopes filled with money that are traditionally given out on special occasions in China.

She said the practice has always been a source of stress.>>>

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Travelling

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?
Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?

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Entertainment

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?

Spring Festival fun

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Renting a girlfriend/boyfriend

A flowchart showing the embarrassing questions posed by relatives during Spring Festival has become an online hit with young people. While many look forward to reuniting with their families for the holiday, for some, the constant probing enquiries of loved-ones can leave them a little flushed with embarrassment or frustration.>>>

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?

Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?Spring Festival is all about family reunions and that all-important dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve. It is also a time for young eligible people to face a barrage of questions from parents and elders about finding a life partner and settling down.

So what do youths who have no plans to tie the knot any time soon do to avoid the inquisition? They rent a "boyfriend" or "girlfriend". And what better place to get one than the Internet, for example, on Taobao.com, China's largest online marketplace, which seems to be the most popular site offering such deals this year. >>>

Desperately seeking Spring Festival love

Rented boyfriends keep parents at bay

Rent-a-boyfriend service stirs debate

Opinion

Spring Festival is here, well almost.

When we talk about this national festival, tradition is the word that first comes to mind: house cleaning, cooking lots of food, hanging scrolls with couplets on doors for good luck, lighting fireworks to bid adieu to the past year and greet the new one.

Traditions are important. A country that loses its traditions loses its national identity. Yet it does not mean that we have to follow all traditions blindly. Some have to change with time. >>>

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