People kept themselves busy in different ways during the week-long Chinese New Year holiday.

Holiday shopping

Holiday retailing saw great prosperity after most online shops halted business during the Chinese New Year.

The first few warm and sunny days of the holiday drew people to many shop-ping areas across the city. Clothing, jew-ellery and electronic products were the best-selling holiday items, according to major retailers downtown.

During 　the holiday, 　restaurants be-gan 　their busy day 　every noon, while most department stores had their gold-en time of the day from 1pm. Most shop-pers, the retailers said, were 　local citi-zens and farmers from the suburbs.

The Chinese New Year 　celebration overlaps 　the winter vacation, 　so 　there were huge discounts 　for 　students’　fa-vorite goods, especially electronic prod-ucts. 　And 　the 　upcoming 　Valentine’s Day also pushed up the sale of jewellery. Horse-shaped gold necklaces were ex-tremely popular, as the horse is the Chi-nese zodiac sign for this year.

Most winter clothing was discounted by 50%-70% during the holiday, with days warming 　up 　to 　feel 　like 　spring. Many shoppers were interested in new arrivals for spring. Traveling

Locals are most willing to loosen the purse strings for trips during the Spring Festival.

Of the domestic destinations, Hainan and 　Yunnan 　provinces were 　the 　two most popular due to their warm weath-er. 　Northeast 　China, 　Fujian 　and Sichuan provinces ranked the third to the fifth most popular destinations.

Crowds also headed to nearby cities for hot spring bathing. Suzhou’s Yishe Hot Spring, Nanjing’s Tangshan Hot Spring, and Changshu’s Haiquanwan Hot Spring got the most bathers.

Over half of those who booked tours online were heading overseas, accord-ing to the Suzhou branch of online pack-age tour provider Tuniu.com. Statistics from 　the 　website 　showed 　the 　most sought-after overseas destinations were South Korea, Europe, and the Maldives. Of 　the Asian destinations, Bali, Thai-land, Cambodia, and the Philippines at-tracted most tourists from Suzhou.

Package trips to Europe used to con-tain many countries on a single trip, but Suzhou tourists have begun making in-tensive trips to a single European coun-try. Romantic France, beautiful Greece and historic 　Italy were popular 　des-tinations for intensive trips.

While traveling within China, 　most 　tourists were 　inclined 　to 　go 　for do-it-yourself trips. Some families 　gathered 　in 　one group and hired a driver to tailor their own trip. Visiting local attractions

We 　should 　not 　forget 　that Suzhou 　is also a popular 　tourist destination. Tourists began to flow in 　to 　experience 　Suzhou-style Chinese 　New 　Year 　celebrations 　on February 3 and 4.

Touring 　local 　gar-dens, watching Kun-qu opera, eating noodles at Tongdexing Noodle Restaurant, and drinking tea at local parks were some of the experiences out-of-towners were eager to have.

The fifth day of the first month on the Chinese lunar calendar, or February 4, is said to be the birthday of the God of Wealth and also an auspicious day 　to welcome him. The celebration of the day is a big part of the Spring Festival tradi-tion. Many ancient streets, 　towns and temples held activities 　to welcome 　the God 　of Wealth. 　Tourists 　swarmed 　to Shantang 　Street, 　Tongli 　Town, Zhouzhuang Town and Buddhist tem-ples where the God of Wealth is believed to live.

Meanwhile, districts and county-level cities of Suzhou had 　lantern shows 　in the evenings. The lantern show in Gusu District was at the ancient Xumen Gate; the 　lantern show 　in Wuzhong District was held in Mudu Town. In SND, the Suzhou-Taiwan 　Lantern 　Festival 　was held in Suzhou Amusement Land.