Related News
Holiday expenses average 40,000 yuan per person in top tier cities
Online Edition
PEOPLE in China’s top tier cities are expected to spend almost 40,000 yuan (US$6,555) per person during the week-long Spring Festival holiday, including “hongbao,” or red packets, given to families and relatives, a private report showed.
Parents, children, and the children of relatives are the ones who most frequently get hongbao, a red envelop stuffed with money, Singapore-based United Overseas Bank said in a report.
The 40,000-yuan figure came from a recent survey on 2,000 people between 18 to 55 years old in China’s top 10 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Shenyang, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Travel costs will take the lion’s share of the respondents’ holiday budget, accounting for almost a third, while hongbao take almost 17 percent. Hangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai top the big spenders in China, according to the report.
The tradition of giving hongbao evolves with technology, and electronic hongbao have become the preferred way to received money in China, the US payment service provider Western Union said today in a report.
Over half of remittance receivers in China prefer to receive red packets electronically, directly into their bank account, according the report.
In China and other Asian countries, the red packets, containing “lucky money,” are a symbol of good fortune. Traditionally, on Chinese New Year’s Eve, children keep the red envelopes received from elder family members under their pillows to ward off evil spirits for the whole year.
Presenting red envelops during family reunions at traditional occasions is a gesture to spread luck and lift the festive sentiment, and a tradition at odds with electronic hongbao.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
