Zhang Xin, a white-collar worker from Shanghai, made advance reservations to spend the Spring Festival holiday enjoying snow in Northeast China's Jilin province.

Zhang, together with his 7-year-old son, practiced snowboarding techniques under the guidance of an instructor at Changbaishan International Resort. They progressed from falling repeatedly at first to gaining some proficiency. Zhang humorously remarked that this year's Spring Festival was a "sliding" celebration.

Zhang is not alone in spending the holiday exploring new places, experiencing new things, enjoying good food and buying new clothes and digital gadgets. During the holiday, bustling temple fairs, crowded restaurants and cinemas, and packed high-speed train stations were common scenes, leading to a spending boom in services, which is an emerging consumption engine for the world's second-largest economy.

Services consumption was up by 12.3 percent year-on-year during the holiday, higher than the 9.9 percent increase in goods consumption, data from the country's taxation authority showed.

According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 501 million domestic tourist trips were made across the country during the holiday, marking a year-on-year increase of 5.9 percent.

The total expenditure on domestic travel reached 677 billion yuan ($92.87 billion), reflecting a year-on-year growth of 7 percent.

This year's holiday celebrations featured a mix of cultural heritage and advanced technologies. While major museums, including the Palace Museum and Sanxingdui Ruins site, reported record visitor numbers as historical exhibitions became holiday hotspots, multiple scenic areas provided interactive robot displays, AI-guided tours and VR experiences for visitors.

The consumer market was vibrant and lively, with a strong momentum in services consumption, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Notably, restaurant bookings soared to record levels, underscoring rebounding consumer spending in the catering sector.

Major eateries across Shanghai were fully booked through the holiday period. Xinya Cantonese Restaurant on Nanjing Road Walkway, for instance, operated at full capacity during the Spring Festival holiday between Jan 28 and Feb 4.

At a restaurant in the hotpot chain Haidilao in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, the table turnover rate exceeded 10 times during peak hours on the second day of the festival, according to the company.

Data showed that the combined revenue of major catering businesses during the holiday period rose 6.2 percent compared to the same period of 2024.

Moreover, watching movies gained in popularity during this year's Spring Festival holiday. From Chinese mythology to suspense detective stories, the Spring Festival movie lineup offered a diverse range of genres and posted record-breaking sales.

Services consumption has been gaining steam in China in recent years. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's total service retail sales in 2024 grew by 6.2 percent year-on-year, outperforming the 3 percent increase in goods retail sales.

Per capita services consumption expenditure in 2024 among residents also rose by 7.4 percent compared to the previous year, accounting for 46.1 percent of total per capita consumption expenditures, an increase of 0.9 percentage point from the previous year.

To further promote the high-quality development of services consumption, the State Council last year issued a document urging efforts to better open up the services sector, enhance service quality, enrich consumer experiences and optimize the consumption environment.

Xinhua - China Daily