Major sites report brisk business as buyers from home and abroad place orders

Shopping orders are surging on Chinese e-commerce websites as Spring Festival, which falls on February 10, approaches.

Sun Tingxue, a 28-year-old in Zhejiang province, spent about 400 yuan ($64) on imported fruit and snacks for the Lunar New Year on Taobao.com, the country's largest shopping website.

It is the fifth year the young mother, who is a frequent online shopper, has bought items online for Spring Festival.

"My friends of similar age do the same," she said, adding that the best Lunar New Year item she bought is a bag of walnuts - "cheap but of good quality".

A total of 4.8 million people made New Year purchases on Taobao from Jan 8 to 14, with 4.5 million of them buying food worth a total of 1.1 billion yuan in that week, Taobao said.

By the end of December, China had 242 million online shoppers, with online retail becoming one of the most frequently used services for Chinese Internet users.

Taobao said in an e-mail to China Daily: "Interestingly, Chinese staying overseas also like to buy Lunar New Year items back home."

A total of 9,871 overseas Chinese did their Spring Festival shopping online from Jan 8 to 14, with more than 20 percent of them in the United States.

Sweets, biscuits and chocolate remain the most popular items for online shopping for the holiday.

Then come traditional Chinese pastries, following the success last year of A Bite of China, a popular TV documentary. From Jan 8 to 14, traditional Chinese pastry sales reached 19.92 million yuan, more than doubling the figure from a year ago, Taobao said.

Other e-commerce websites are tempting buyers with Spring Festival promotions. Dangdang.com is staging a festival from Jan 17 to 31, which promotes sales of food, clothing, and daily necessities.