The retail volume of China's social consumer goods reached 190 billion yuan (about 24 billion U.S. dollars) during the Spring Festival Golden Week holiday, up 15.5 percent on last year's festival, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Commerce.

The statistics also revealed that the business volume of the catering industry rose about 25 percent during the seven-day holiday which started on January 29, the first day of China's Lunar New Year, and ended on February 4.

As the Chinese people become better-off, they are willing to spend more during holidays. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show in 2005, the per capita disposable income of urban people grew 9.6 percent year-on-year, and the per capita income for rural people rose 6.2 percent.

The retail volume of social consumer goods in Chongqing Municipality and Hebei, Jiangsu, Shanxi and Sichuan provinces rose markedly, ranging from 15 percent to 18 percent year-on-year, during the Golden Week, the ministry said.

As tens of millions of farmers-turned-migrant workers returned to their hometowns to celebrate the New Year with their families in villages, the sale of wine, cigarettes, food and clothing in rural markets doubled during the holiday.

Responding to public demand, many Chinese cities, including the capital Beijing, lifted a 12-year ban on firecrackers this year, allowing residents to set off firecrackers and fireworks in designated areas.

The rocketing sales volume of firecrackers and fireworks before and during the holiday contributed a lot to the nationwide consumption boom, reported the ministry. Queues of people outside fireworks stores became a common sight in some cities.

In cities, the sale of gold and jewelry products, clothing, cell phones and home appliances were brisk during the week-long holiday, either because the Chinese people prefer to wear and use something new during the New Year, or because they want to buy gold to boost the value of their assets.

Figures from the ministry show that the sales volumes at major appliance chain stores in Chongqing Municipality soared 61 percent during the holiday, and in many department stores, the sale of home appliances made up over 40 percent of their total sales.

It is the tradition for Chinese families to reunite and dine together on the Spring Festival Eve, and restaurants in many Chinese cities sold most of their seats for feasts on the Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve. In Nanjing, capital city of eastern China's Jiangsu Province, about 1.2 million citizens turned to restaurants to enjoy the feast, 200,000 more than the previous year.

China now has three "Golden Week" holidays -- the Spring Festival, May Day, and National Day. The holiday scheme, initiated by the Chinese government in 1999, aims to boost domestic demand, stimulate consumption, and restructure the economy. As the prolonged holidays turned out to be "golden" for the economy, they became known as "Golden Weeks".

Source: Xinhua