Beijing businesses report record Christmas sales

Asian Economic News, Dec 29, 2003

BEIJING, Dec. 25 Kyodo

Beijing celebrated its most commercialized Christmas on record this year after a decade of rising popularity for the Western holiday, people in the service sector said Thursday.

Restaurants filled, bars overflowed, gift boxes sold in record numbers and street-corner vendors yelled ''Merry Christmas'' to attract Chinese shoppers. Merchants reported sales increases this month over last December.

''We were full last night, and people were begging for reservations. We don't see that very much,'' said Australian-born Greg Elliott, owner of the 90-seat Mexican Wave restaurant.

''December is usually a slow month for business. But Christmas is so big in the news, even if you're an atheist.''

Ten years ago, Beijing people all but ignored Christmas. But as urbanites have become wealthier and more enamored of Western culture, the holiday has gained favor with younger people.

Five years ago, Christmas infiltrated bars and hotels. This year Christmas is an all-out consumption festival, as employers buy gifts for employees, companies for clients, and boyfriends and girlfriends for each other.

''Every year there's a dramatic increase,'' said Ethan Perk, China sales and marketing director with the Montrose Food & Wine distributor, which reported a 35% surge in gift box sales over last December. ''Customers, when they buy wine, will say, 'Do you have box? Do you have a card?' It's Christmas in China in a big way.''

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, retail turnover in December 2002 was 18% more than that of the previous month, totaling 440.4 billion yuan ($53.2 billion).

Shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve, streets jammed around Beijing's Wangfujing pedestrian shopping district. Mobile phones, meanwhile, were filled with text-message holiday greetings, which cost 0.15 yuan apiece. Department store salespeople had switched their normal blue-and-white uniforms for Santa costumes.

The service sector, still reeling from the cabin-fever mentality of Beijing's SARS outbreak, reported record-breaking holidays.

The Swissotel Beijing said 600 people, including senior citizens, attended its annual Christmas dinner-dance party on Wednesday, up from 500 last Christmas, thanks to better promotions and greater acceptance of Christmas itself.

''Chinese and Western culture have merged -- you can't say it's a Western holiday anymore,'' said food and beverages secretary Xu Lei. ''Our promotions (for Christmas) are the same as for Spring Festival.''

Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year, is a public holiday and traditionally China's most sacred day of the year. The mid-winter date varies from year to year according to the moon's position.

For the first Christmas ever, the St. Regis Beijing hotel turned people away from its holiday party, which grew from 160 to 190 year-on-year despite an increase of 1,650 to 1,888 yuan per ticket.

The hotel's Italian restaurant and steakhouse also filled to their combined 120-seat capacity. Most customers were Chinese, and they came largely for the 80 prize giveaways and because their companies bought tickets, said food and beverage manager Russell Paine.

''The St. Regis had its best Christmas,'' Paine said. ''We made our most money ever.

But commercially, Christmas lags behind Spring Festival and the mid-Autumn festival in September, said Campbell Thompson, marketing director with ASC Fine Wines in Beijing.

Orders for sparking wine and crystal glasses are up this Christmas over last, he said, but ''still pale in comparison'' with the two major Chinese holidays.

Christmas is not a Chinese legal holiday. But merchants expect it to keep growing in years to come.