China aims for a bumper Lunar New Year to boost domestic spending

Chinese officials hope this year’s extra-long lunar new year holiday will lift the economy as boosting domestic spending becomes a key priority. The government expects a record 9.5 billion passenger trips across the 40-day spring festival period, up from 9 billion last year, with hundreds of millions of people crisscrossing the country to make what is often their only trip home.

Although China is no longer the world’s most populous country, its annual chunyun, or “spring transportation”, remains the world’s largest mass migration. The official holiday will be nine days rather than the usual eight, running from 15-23 February with New Year’s Day on 17 February, giving people more time to spend their hongbao, the red packets of cash given to relatives.

China will be ushering in the year of the horse, said to represent optimism and opportunity, following the year of the snake, a period linked with transformation.

China

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