Opinion

Spring Festival consumption: A window on China’s vast economic potential

During the just-concluded longest-ever Spring Festival holiday, China’s consumer market has been running at full throttle, showcasing new highlights: great popularity of special New Year traditions, integration of robots into everyday life, and a trend of “reverse Spring Festival travel for family reunion”. All these reflect China's tremendous economic potential.

Culture is playing an increasingly evident role in empowering economic growth. At the heart of China’s most important traditional festival lies a strong festive atmosphere. Consumption themes such as experiencing traditional New Year customs, viewing intangible cultural heritage, buying China-chic apparel, and giving cultural gifts have become the defining trends. Diverse innovations are breathing new life into traditional Spring Festival culture, opening up new vistas for future consumption upgrades.

Technological strengths are catalyzing higher consumer spending at an accelerated pace. From the dazzling humanoid robots at the Spring Festival Gala to daily life, technology is reshaping China at an unprecedented pace, and spreading like wildfire through social media and family gatherings. In recent years, the fruits of China’s scientific and technological progress have been flowing into the consumer sector - a trend that will accelerate as more new tech products hit the market in ever-shorter timeframes, driving substantial consumption gains.

Consumer preferences are growing more diverse and personalized. This year’s holiday revealed three striking trends. First, more parents are traveling to their children’s cities, a trend of “reverse travel for family reunion” especially visible in megacities like Beijing and Shanghai. Second, young shoppers now dominate New Year purchasing, reshaping what to buy, and how to spend. Third, the focus is shifting from products to experiences: spending on services, emotions, and memories is taking center stage.

Spring Festival spending offers more than just rising numbers, as it reflects a profound shift toward higher-quality consumption, as well as the resilience and potential of China’s economy. With fresh, targeted policies that link consumption growth to better living standards, China’s massive market is poised to drive the economy forward, steady and resilient.

Policy

1. To further facilitate cross-border travel, China decides to, starting from Feb. 17, 2026, extend its visa-free policy to ordinary passport holders from Canada and the UK. Ordinary passport holders from the two countries can be exempted from visa to enter China and stay for up to 30 days for business, tourism, family/friends visit, exchange and transit purposes. The policy will be effective until Dec. 31, 2026.

2. China’s State Council has approved the upgrade of the Hebei Xiong'an high-tech industrial development zone to a national-level high-tech industrial development zone.

Data

1. According to the National Financial Regulatory Administration, by the end of 2025, the total assets in RMB and foreign currencies of China's banking financial institutions reached RMB 480 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 8.0 percent. The total assets of insurance companies and insurance asset management companies stood at RMB 41.3 trillion, up 15.1 percent from the beginning of the year. The asset quality of commercial banks remained generally stable throughout the year, and the solvency of the insurance industry was adequate.

2. By the end of 2025, the balance of agriculture-related loans nationwide was RMB 53.57 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 6.5 percent. Among them, the balance of loans in key grain sectors was RMB 5.25 trillion, up 16.94 percent year-on-year. The balance of agricultural technology loans nationwide was RMB 190.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 29 percent. The scale of agriculture-related credit increased steadily throughout the year, with stable and declining loan interest rates.

3. Data shows that the total number of registrations on China's national platform for public data resource registration has exceeded 250,000 items, accessing over 70,000 items of open data from various regions. These cover all major categories of the national economy and involve multiple fields such as administrative law enforcement, social security, healthcare, and credit services.

4. The latest statistics from the National Financial Regulatory Administration indicate that in 2025, China's agricultural insurance premium income reached RMB 155.55 billion, providing a cumulative risk protection of RMB 5.3 trillion. In terms of premium income, 2025 marked the second consecutive year that China became the world's largest agricultural insurance market. Agricultural insurance now covers all aspects of agricultural production.

5. According to the Export-Import Bank of China, in 2025, the bank issued RMB 640 billion in new loans for the Belt and Road Initiative. The funds were primarily directed towards areas such as import and export trade, connectivity infrastructure, overseas investment and production capacity cooperation, advanced manufacturing, green development, and livelihood improvement.

6. National Energy Administration data shows that in January, the administration issued 196 million green electricity certificates, covering 832,000 renewable energy power generation projects. Among them, 151 million certificates (76.79 percent) are tradable.

7. Data released by the China Automobile Dealers Association shows that in January 2026, the national used car market transaction volume reached 1.7292 million units, a year-on-year increase of 18.33 percent, with a transaction value of RMB 110.612 billion.

8. Data from the Ministry of Transport shows that during the 9-day Spring Festival holiday, 2.8 billion cross-regional trips were made, with an average of 311 million trips per day, an increase of 8.2 percent year-on-year. The travel scale set a record high.

9. According to the National Energy Administration, during the 9-day Spring Festival holiday, the number of electric vehicle charging sessions on highways totaled 6.021 million, with a charging volume of 149.7675 million kWh. The average daily charging volume was 16.6408 million kWh, an increase of 52.01 percent compared to the average daily volume during the previous Spring Festival holiday, setting a record high.

10. Calculations by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Data Center show that during the 9-day Spring Festival holiday, the number of domestic trips nationwide reached 596 million, an increase of 95 million compared to the 8-day Spring Festival holiday in 2025; total domestic travel spending amounted to RMB 803.483 billion, an increase of RMB 126.481 billion compared to the 8-day holiday in 2025. Both the number of tourists and spending during the holiday reached record highs.

(Source: Economic Daily)