Spring Festival, the most important holiday for Chinese, is setting new trends as technologies transform people's way of life.
Besides the traditional celebrations such as family reunion dinners, sending "red envelopes" and paying a New Year call, new traditions such as collecting five blessings on payment platform Alipay to win cash rewards, giving and grabbing digital "red envelopes" on instant messaging app WeChat, and doing special purchases for the holiday online are taking roots.
Here are six moments showing how common Chinese people spent their Spring Festival holiday in the mobile internet era.
Ji Xuan (left) introduces Taobao, Alibaba's online shopping platform, to foreign friends in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb 4, 2019. [Photo/IC]
To have a relaxing holiday rather than to deal with overzealous relatives who are too interested in his personal life, Ji Xuan chose to travel to Vietnam during the Spring Festival.
It could have been difficult for Ji to travel abroad as he is not good at English or any other foreign language, but he even made some friends in Vietnam with the help of translation apps and Taobao, on which he successfully bought a local phone card in advance.
Huo Junzheng has family reunion dinner in Xuchang, Henan province, Feb 4, 2019. [Photo/IC]
Huo Junzheng, a merchant who sells props for traditional festival entertainment activities such as stilts, lion dance and land boat dance, did not attend family reunion dinner for many years until this Chinese New Year's Eve.
Running an online store on Taobao releases him from the "tradition" of leaving hometown to sell props during the holiday.
A woman surnamed Zhao poses with her special purchases for the Spring Festival bought on Taobao in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Feb 5, 2019. [Photo/IC]
A woman surnamed Zhao who is 56 years old learnt how to use Taobao to buy goods online last year. She bought more than 20 special purchases for the Spring Festival on Taobao this year.
A villager picks up his parcel at a Taobao parcel pickup point in Wangguanji town, Suqian, Jiangsu province, Feb 3, 2019. [Photo/IC]
For migrant workers who come back to their hometown from big cities during the Spring Festival holiday, they do not need to carry goods with them. With Taobao parcel pickup points in virtually every town, they can make online orders and pick up parcels at home.
A woman living in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, learns how to cook from an anchor who is doing online livestreaming on Feb 4, 2019. [Photo/IC]
On Chinese New Year's Eve, a woman living in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, who does not cook usually but would like to prepare the reunion dinner for her family learnt cooking from online livestreaming video.
Jia Wenjing feeds a cat during the Spring Festival holiday. [Photo/IC]
During the Spring Festival holiday, Taobao shop owner Jia Wenjing received more than 1,000 orders of pet care. She was paid to take care of cats that were left behind in Beijing as their owners had to return to their hometowns across China.
