2018 Spring Festival New Year’s Eve Survey： How much does it cost？ Where to eat？ What to eat？
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 16th Question: How much does it cost? Where to eat? What to eat? — — Survey of New Year’s Eve Dinner in 2018
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter
For Chinese, the New Year’s Eve is the brightest "peak moment" of the Spring Festival — — All the hard work and thoughts in a year are sitting around and enjoying the delicious moment, which turns into deep affection and happiness.
How much did you spend on the New Year’s Eve dinner in 2018? Where did you eat? What’s the food? On New Year’s Eve, "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters investigated the New Year’s Eve of different groups all over the country.
How much does it cost: Most people in Beishangguang are from 100 yuan to 150 yuan.
At 7 o’clock in the evening on New Year’s Eve, a restaurant in Beijing was packed with guests, and a family raised their glasses frequently. Some individual passengers in the lobby are still waiting in line to get the number, and the waiter who is too busy to touch the ground said that there are still 8 tables waiting in line in front.
According to the survey of China Cuisine Association, the overall booking rate of New Year’s Eve dinner this year has increased steadily compared with last year. It is expected that the catering market will achieve double-digit growth during the Spring Festival Golden Week this year. Wu Ying, deputy secretary-general of China Cuisine Association, said: "The overall price of New Year’s Eve dinner is basically the same as last year, with a slight increase."
The reporter’s investigation found that in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, a table for 10 people is basically 2,000 yuan, and the per capita "starting price" is from 100 yuan to 150 yuan, and the highest is to 300 yuan.
"The price has not risen this year, and the per capita cost is more than 200 yuan in 150 yuan." Wang Hongqing, deputy general manager of Tongchunyuan, a Beijing time-honored brand, said that there were more bookings of 1,888 yuan and 2,388 yuan.
The price of New Year’s Eve in second-tier cities is not low. In Changchun, the price of the New Year’s Eve dinner package for 10 to 12 people is mostly from 800 yuan to 2,000 yuan, and the average person spends it from 80 yuan to 180 yuan.
In some big cities, a few high-end consumers make an appointment with chefs to cook New Year’s Eve dinner. According to the number and difficulty of dishes, the per capita cost is between 400 yuan and 500 yuan in 1000 yuan.
In addition, this year’s New Year’s Eve dinner has a new feature. "The booking of semi-finished New Year’s Eve dinner has grown rapidly." Wu Ying said that some citizens prefer to buy semi-finished products, and after a little processing at home, they can taste dishes that are not easy to cook. This year’s semi-finished New Year’s Eve dinner is expected to increase by more than 10%, and the per capita consumption is mostly from 50 yuan to 100 yuan.
It is understood that Beijing Tongchunyuan has prepared 400 semi-finished products, including 6 meat dishes, bean bags, Huangqiao biscuits and other staple foods, with prices ranging from 288 yuan to 498 yuan; Tongheju has booked more than 800 semi-finished products, more than double that of last year.
"In my impression, I started to go to the restaurant for dinner in the mid-1990s. Since 1995, I have never been home before 9 o’clock on New Year’s Eve. " Wang Hongqing said that in the 1990 s, each table of New Year’s Eve dinner was two or three hundred yuan, which was almost half a month’s salary of the working class.
Zhang Fangzhong, technical director of Huajia Yiyuan’s production department, said that in the 1990s, people who went out to eat New Year’s Eve had good economic conditions. After 2000, ordinary consumers began to eat New Year’s Eve outside. At that time, the better restaurants had a table of 688 yuan and 888. The main dishes are elbow, whole fish, whole chicken and lion’s head. After about 2005, many ordinary families began to eat New Year’s Eve in star-rated hotels.
In contrast, eating at home is more economical. Liu Yanming, a citizen of Changchun, said that he bought elbow, shrimp, fish and other high-grade ingredients and wine, and the average person counted about 70 to 80 yuan.
On the dinner table of Zhou Duchun, a poor household in Hengnan County, Hengyang City, Hunan Province, even the raw materials came from his own home. There are bean curd made from beans in the field, fried fish, braised pork and fried chicken, totaling more than 30 yuan. The old man’s daughter and son-in-law are working outside, so they can’t go home this year. The local government sent grain, oil and rice noodles to the old man years ago.
Where to eat New Year’s Eve: The number of people eating out is increasing, and the proportion of first-and second-tier cities is higher than that of third-and fourth-tier cities.
According to the survey of China Cuisine Association, the number of people who choose to eat out for New Year’s Eve dinner is increasing all over the country, and the proportion of eating out in first-and second-tier cities is higher than that in third-and fourth-tier cities. In addition, popularization and popularization are the mainstream.
In Beijing, time-honored brands and branded restaurants are favored. Some time-honored brands have to book more than half a year in advance before they can have private rooms, and they have to turn over two or three tables a night. Many repeat customers booked this year’s dinner last year. However, some people want to eat something different from usual on this day, so some ethnic catering and western food are also booked hot.
The Pearl River Night Tour "Water New Year’s Eve Dinner" launched by Guangzhou Passenger Shipping Company allows visitors to enjoy the night view of Guangzhou while enjoying the delicious New Year’s Eve dinner.
Calling "takeaway" at home is a prominent feature of this year’s New Year’s Eve dinner. Many take-away platforms have launched New Year’s Eve delivery services. According to the data of "Hungry" and Baidu Takeaway, in the past two or three years, take-away orders have increased rapidly during the Spring Festival, and the consumption power of second-and third-tier cities has improved significantly. The per capita consumption of Baidu takeaway has nearly doubled compared with usual, reaching 80 yuan to 90 yuan. According to the data of Meituan, in 2016 and 2017, the area with the highest single average price was Sanya, which was close to 150 yuan. The average cost of take-away orders on New Year’s Eve is nearly twice as high as usual.
New technology adds a new color to the New Year’s Eve dinner. In Beijing Box Horse Fresh Life Yizhuang Store, the staff told reporters that many citizens choose to eat New Year’s Eve here. "Buy and eat here, the picture is fresh!" Wu Feng, a customer who lives nearby, said that the ingredients here are all small packages, just like their own "big refrigerator", which can be delivered to the door in 30 minutes at the earliest.
The New Year’s Eve dinner on the trip and on the way home is also warm. On New Year’s Eve, at the Kaixuan Road Highway Passenger Station in Changchun, the staff delivered dumplings to the passengers. Jilin Branch of China Southern Airlines has increased on-board catering, including rice, noodles and jiaozi.
Of course, for many people, eating the family reunion dinner at home is still the deepest expectation and enjoyment. Ms. Lai, a migrant worker who has worked in Guangzhou for more than 10 years, returned to her hometown of Meixian, Guangdong for the New Year this year. She said that her 70-year-old mother-in-law looks forward to this day every year. She has to prepare a large family’s New Year’s Eve dinner, such as chicken, pigs, fish, vegetables, rice cakes, etc. In short, she has to make up 12 dishes, which means peace in the four seasons.
What to eat on New Year’s Eve: Traditional eating habits are still powerful.
Due to different customs and eating habits, New Year’s Eve dinners in different parts of China have different interests and are rich and colorful.
Cao Baoming, a folklorist and president of Jilin Food Culture Research Association, said that the New Year’s Eve dinner embodies Chinese’s long-standing annual culture, and each dish and collocation has its own unique cultural connotation. For example, in some places, there must be Chinese cabbage on the New Year’s Eve, which means "hundred treasures", leek means "long time", hot pot means "flourishing" and rice cake means "rising year by year".
Wang Peng, manager of a hotel in Wangtian ‘e New Village, Changbai County, Jilin Province, told the reporter that many southern tourists are very interested in the special New Year’s Eve dinner in Northeast China, and book the New Year’s Eve dinner in advance, such as classic dishes such as braised vegetables in cauldron, stewed pork vermicelli, and snacks such as sticky bean buns.
According to Alibaba’s "2018 China New Year Consumption Report", the local products with hometown flavor are mostly the favorite ingredients for New Year’s Eve dinner for consumers in various regions. For example, ham favored by consumers in East China, sausage favored by consumers in South China, sea cucumber and frozen shrimp favored by consumers in North China.
With the continuous improvement of living standards, people have more and more dishes on the dinner table, but the power of traditional eating habits is still strong.
In Guangzhou, traditional boiled chicken and winter melon porridge are still kept on the dinner table. "Unexpectedly, a pound of lion’s head and elbow is almost a must-have for every table." Zhang Fangzhong said that people still pay more attention to the sense of ceremony of New Year’s Eve.
In rural Henan, jiaozi eats meat stuffing on New Year’s Eve, and jiaozi eats vegetarian stuffing early in the morning. "Everyone in the village has to eat earlier than anyone else. When you go to jiaozi, you must set off firecrackers. Before you eat jiaozi, you must eat a mouthful of steamed bread, so that you will be strong in the coming year. " Gao Yong ‘an, an associate professor at Renmin University of China, said.
Wei Qi, a professor at the School of Philosophy and Social Development in northwest university of politics and law, said that people in their hometown should eat noodles on New Year’s Eve. Mother cooked chicken soup and rolled noodles, and then fried shredded chicken, kelp and daylily into a scorpion and poured it on the noodles. "What I miss most is the taste made by my mother." (Reporter Guan Guifeng, Liu Shuo, Zheng Tianhong, Ying Zhou, Zhang Xinxin)