Capital delights to savor during festive period

Beijing is staging a variety of consumption activities to boost residents' spending and welcome the upcoming Chinese New Year which falls on Jan 29 this year, said officials from the Beijing Commerce Bureau.

One of these is a shopping festival featuring numerous time-honored brands of Beijing, including tea shop Wuyutai, famous roast duck restaurant chain Quanjude and snack maker Beijing Daoxiangcun.

The festival features an exhibition taking place at Wangfujing Street, Dongcheng district, where visitors cannot only purchase a diverse array of products but experience traditional Beijing culture.

Local officials said the capital now has nearly 100 shopping malls, supermarkets and chain stores setting up special areas for Spring Festival.

Some suburban districts such as Tongzhou and Changping are organizing open-air markets, enabling residents to purchase different foods for the festival and participate in cultural activities.

In collaboration with digital platforms such as JD, Meituan and Douyin, the city has also launched the 2025 Beijing online Chinese New Year shopping festival, offering consumers special discounts, digital coupons and many other benefits.

To meet people's growing demands for a healthy diet, the Beijing Food and Beverage Industry Association and the Beijing Cuisine Association are working together with leading catering companies in the city to host a food festival and select the best for a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner.

With the support from the two associations, some 100 catering enterprises and 1,000 stores in the city are giving special promotions for the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner and popular festival foods, local officials said. "All of our private rooms for the Chinese New Year's Eve have been booked. Some customers made reservations as early as October," said a staff member from Quanjude's Hepingmen outlet in Xicheng district.

Many catering enterprises will also provide takeout services for New Year's Eve dinner as well as gift boxes with precooked dishes. Consumers just need to follow the cooking instructions to reheat the dishes, and then they can enjoy a heavy dinner at home, said a staff member from Quanjude.

Theater enthusiasts in Beijing also have a feast to enjoy as there are more than 1,000 performances to choose from during the festival season, including the iconic dance poetry drama The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting and the play Beneath the Red Banner, which is adapted from Lao She's novel of the same title.

In addition, a total of 22 temple fairs, lantern festivals and garden parties will be held across the city from Jan 22 to Feb 12. Covering an area of 56.67 hectares, the lantern festival at the Beijing Garden Expo Park, Fengtai district, includes 100,000 lanterns, 150 shops as well as 500 performances and parades. It is the city's largest lantern festival in history, local officials said.