英闻天下——255 Preparations for Spring Festival in Full Swing

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　　Shoppers are buying red lanterns, scrolls² with poetic³ couplets, paper cuttings and plush snake toys to express their best wishes for the Lunar New Year and decorate their homes.

 

　　"I came here with my mom. I want to buy a pair of couplets to decorate my home."

 

　　"We are happy since our life is better. I've built a new house. I'd like to buy some red lanterns to decorate it."

 

　　The days leading up to the holiday are a busy time for China's markets and food industry. People like to buy lots of meat, vegetables, candy and various fried snacks.

 

　　Wang Fang⁴ is the sales manager of a supermarket.

 

　　"Among all the fried snacks, hazelnuts and peanuts sell very well. Now we have reached the peak of the Spring Festival sale season."

 

　　In ethnic⁵ minority regions, people are preparing for the Spring Festival with their own traditions.

 

　　Take Ganzhou in Jiangxi Province, for example, where many Hakkas live. Various decorations and food are sold in the markets.

 

　　Mr. Liao is a migrant worker. When he saw the special Hakka snack—peanut cakes—he bought five packages without hesitation⁶. He says he misses the taste of his hometown.

 

　　"I bought these for me and as gifts for relatives and friends. Actually, I seldom come back home during the Spring Festival. I miss the food here so much."

 

　　Sharing a meal with family on Lunar New Year's Eve is the best way for Chinese people to get into the festive⁷ spirit. In Beijing, many time-honored restaurants provide family feasts⁸ to go.

 

　　Yang Hao is the manager of You Yi Shun⁹ Muslim Restaurant. He says the sale of the package of cooked dishes at the restaurant has increased by 20 percent.

 

　　"The package of dishes is not expensive. The cooked food is put in vacuum packs, so it's very convenient."

 

　　In the southern regions of China, people like to eat eight-treasures rice pudding during the Spring Festival. A famous snack shop in Shanghai is crowded with people who have come to buy the puddings.

 

　　"The pudding is made from several materials, so it's called eight-treasures rice pudding. It'll bring us good luck."

 

　　The manager of the snack shop says his employees must prepare 20-thousand packages of pudding every day.

 

　　"All the staff comes to work at 5:30 in the morning and leaves at 9 o'clock in the evening. People like the puddings, so we have to make more."

 

　　Many Chinese have also planned leisure activities during Spring Festival holidays. Snow-themed parks in Beijing will entertain southern tourists who come to experience the ice world, and Shanghai will offer a landscape lantern show during the Spring Festival.

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