Chinese New Year By the Numbers!

What do fireworks, great action movies, fruit wrapped in baskets, fancy envelopes, new clothing and people getting fat have in common? You guessed it, they’re all things you see during Chinese New Year! As this year’s chunyun comes to a close, let’s take a minute and look back on some of the impressive figures that were rung up during the CNY period.

According to the Bureau of Transportation, within the last thirty days, rail transportation served roughly 2.2 billion people (article in Chinese), an increase of 9.8% from last year. In the next nine days, another 728 million travelers are still expected, which could count for up to 23% of the total travelers during this season.

For those who didn’t move around much and just stayed in Beijing, you probably contributed to the estimated RMB 390 million national box office revenue during the holidays (based on figures culled from leading cinema chains). RMB 60 million of that was generated by Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows while Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol made 55 million on January 28 alone, posting the highest one-day box office revenue during the Spring Festival period (Jan 22-28).

Aside from watching movies with lots of slow-motion (and fast-motion) effects, people also spent big on food. Though we don’t have an estimated figure for these expenditures, we do have a poll taken by more than five thousand people on weight fluctuations during the holidays. According to Sina Weibo users, 71% gained weight while 22% remained the same and, interestingly enough, 7% actually lost weight during all the visiting around and partying.

As with many holidays, people didn’t just withdraw cash from their bank account on the day of the festival. Weeks before the fireworks started, they already began their holiday investments on food, decorations, clothing and other not-so-practical things. From Jan 1 to Feb 1, Chinese citizens spent a shocking 7.2 billion US dollars outside of China on leather goods, perfume and apparel. Of this amount, 46% was spent in Europe, 35% was spent in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan combined and 19% was spent in North America. During the same period, only 1.75 billion US dollars was spent within China.

Whether your celebrations were luxurious or simple, try not to think too hard about all the money you’ve spent. Even if you dispensed with four months’ salary, at least you’ve had a great time! Post-holiday depression is the last thing you want to bring back to your office – and committing suicide over spending 22,000 kuai like this Shenyang bride is certainly not the way to go.

In case you were curious, here’s just a portion of what she and her new husband bought, and for how much:

  • New clothing for husband’s parents: over 2000 kuai
  • Two bottles of wine and a fruit basket for each relative: 400 kuai each x 14 people = almost 6000 kuai total
  • Hongbao for relative’s children: 200 kuai each x 12 children = 2400 kuai
  • Party/dinner: 4000 kuai
  • Train tickets and other transit: 2000 kuai

Can you sympathize with this Shenyang spender? What emptied your pockets this Chunjie?

Any other exciting stats from this year’s festival to report? Let us know in a comment below.

Photos: CNNgo.com, NYTimes.com

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I, for one, fall into the 7% who lost weight. All my favorite xiaochidians were closed, so I had to snack and snack and snack...until dinner, when I usually found myself over in sanlitun scarfing down foreign fare. Thank you to Ganges, Rumi, Kro's Nest, etc. I would have starved without you.