According to Market News, people intend to spend more money during the Christmas holiday than the traditional Double Fifth Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.

 

 

When visiting New World Plaza in Beijing, one can see a 28-meter-high well-decorated Christmas tree, the highest one in the capital of China. It surely attracts many young customers, though it costs 400 thousand yuan (US$51 thousand).

 

Promotion billboards and colorful graffiti created by young artists can be seen in Xidan commercial district, and some stores and supermarkets have been decorated with new ornaments.

 

A salesperson said shopping climax will arrive on Christmas Eve, when tens of thousands of people rush to supermarkets or shopping malls. "Anyway, various promotion activities will help us make more profits than the previous years," he said.

 

The Pizza Huts in Beijing started promoting their new products in November, and put up many ornaments like Christmas trees and Santa Claus. Their waitresses all wearing red Christmas hats have been busy preparing Christmas Eve dinners.

 

"It is not easy to get air tickets of international airlines these days. Many Chinese travel agencies also plan to organize several activities for their clients traveling abroad during Christmas holidays," an executive from Air China International said.

 

Miss Zhou, a white collar in Beijing, said that she hoped to have an exotic Christmas holiday, by buying some cheap clothes and articles during this promotion season abroad.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2006)