The 霍邱新闻网app"crying horse" stuffed toys attract people's attention at the Yiwu International Trade City in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province, on Jan 12. LYU BIN/FOR CHINA DAILY

As China heads into the Year of the Horse, consumer demand is being released earlier than usual, propelled by the country's longest Spring Festival holiday on record and a coordinated policy push aimed at turning seasonal spending into sustained economic momentum.

The 2026 Spring Festival holiday will run from Feb 15 to 23, spanning nine consecutive days. The extended break — longer than in previous years — is not only reshaping travel and spending plans, but also amplifying the effects of policies designed to unlock consumption potential, particularly in services, travel and experience-driven spending.

From bustling shopping streets in Beijing to small factories in Zhejiang's Yiwu operating extra production lines, and from reunion dinners booked weeks ahead of Chinese New Year's Eve to a sharp rise in two-way travel, signs of renewed consumption activity are emerging well before the holiday officially begins.

A special "Chinese New Year's Eve dinner" reservation advertisement is launched by a restaurant at a mall in Shanghai on Dec 14. CHINA DAILY

On Beijing's Wangfujing pedestrian street, winter temperatures have done little to slow foot traffic. Flagship stores are drawing a steady stream of overseas visitors, many taking advantage of expanded visa-free access and increasingly seamless digital payment options.

Daniel Chan, a tourist from Los Angeles, stepped out of an electronics store with a newly purchased DJI Osmo Nano camera.

"I've wanted this model for months. It's almost impossible to find stock back home, yet here it was available, and the price was very friendly,"Chan said. "It's not just a souvenir — it's cutting-edge technology."

He said he had already started using the camera on the day of purchase. "I haven't explored all its functions yet, but the magnetic design and image quality are quite good," he added.

What impressed him most during his China trip, Chan said, was the speed and convenience of food delivery services. "It's incredibly fast and efficient — almost unbelievable," he said. Dining in restaurants was equally striking, with some offering dish countdown timers and guaranteed serving speeds. "I've hardly ever experienced service like this in the United States."

Such experiences are precisely what policymakers hope to encourage.

The "Shopping in China" campaign, first launched in April 2025, aims to create a more internationally friendly consumption ecosystem while stimulating domestic demand through higher-quality supply.

At the launch of the 2026 "Shopping in China" and New Year Consumption Season in Shanghai on Jan 3, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said the initiative would focus on goods consumption, services consumption and the development of new consumption scenarios. A series of nationwide events, including a premium consumption month and an international consumption season, will be rolled out, alongside locally tailored programs in 15 pilot cities.

With the nine-day Spring Festival approaching, Wang said the Ministry of Commerce, together with other central departments and local governments, will host a "happy shopping for the Spring Festival" campaign as a flagship component of the "Shopping in China" series. The campaign will span food, accommodation, transport, travel, shopping and entertainment, aiming to create an inclusive, festive consumption experience for families at home and travelers on the move.

More than 1,200 kilometers south of Beijing, Yiwu — the world's largest small-commodities hub — offers a ground-level view of how festive demand is being converted into real orders.

In the plush toy section of Yiwu International Trade Market, one horse-themed product has become an unexpected viral hit. Originally launched in mid-October under the name "Mashang Youqian", meaning "immediate prosperity", the toy initially sold about 400 units a day — steady but far from a bestseller.

Its breakout moment came in January, after a minor production-line error resulted in the toy's mouth being stitched incorrectly, giving it a seemingly "tearful" expression. Buyers who received the flawed version posted photos and chat records online while requesting exchanges. The images struck a chord with netizens, who found humor and resonance in the toy's "wronged" look, quickly propelling it to the top of social media trending lists.

Dubbed the "crying horse", the toy was soon labeled the first cultural "dark horse" of the New Year. As demand surged, the factory expanded production lines from two to more than a dozen, lifting daily output to around 15,000 units. The merchant has since applied for a design patent.

Behind the viral moment, the success mirrors quality and Yiwu merchants' deeply ingrained ability to respond quickly to market signals, from identifying trends to making swift decisions and scaling production with minimal delay.

Across the toy sector, creative interpretations of the Year of the Horse are proliferating. Products range from zodiac photo frames to blind boxes and decorative figurines.

Some bestselling items now sell between 40,000 and 60,000 units a day. For popular designs, factories are producing between 50,000 and 100,000 units daily. To maintain speed and creativity, some merchants require their design teams to develop as many as five new styles each day.

Merchants say interest from foreign buyers has risen, particularly after Spring Festival was added to UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2024.

Consumption momentum is also visible in the catering sector, where Chinese New Year's Eve reunion dinners — a core element of Spring Festival culture — are being booked out well in advance.

In Beijing, several restaurant chains report that all private rooms across multiple branches are already fully booked, with only limited lunchtime slots remaining. Prices largely match regular menus, though advance reservations and deposits are typically required.

To cope with demand, many restaurants have introduced staggered dining slots on Chinese New Year's Eve, offering discounts for later sittings. Others have expanded takeaway services, allowing families to enjoy freshly prepared reunion meals at home.

One restaurant in Beijing's Guomao area has launched two takeaway packages priced at 1,988 yuan ($286) for eight to 10 people and 999 yuan for four to six people, with free delivery within the city's Fifth Ring Road. Customers can also order a la carte, providing greater flexibility.

An emerging trend is the shift toward county towns and rural venues. In Yinjiang town of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, a countryside resort that opened reservations three months ago, has already sold out large private rooms for the first two days of the holiday, attracting families traveling from neighboring Shanghai, and Jiangsu province.

Traditional restaurant brands are also moving into rural markets. Managers say demand for reunion dinners and banquets in these areas remains strong, while the supply of mid — to high-end dining options is relatively limited — creating new opportunities for expansion.

The nine-day break is also reshaping travel patterns, triggering a surge in both outbound and inbound tourism.

Major travel platforms report that Spring Festival bookings for 2026 have surpassed last year's levels across the board. According to data from Flight Master, as of Jan 16, bookings for domestic flights during the holiday exceeded 4.13 million, up about 21 percent year-on-year. Outbound and inbound flight bookings both climbed to around 700,000.

Airbnb data show searches by Chinese travelers for overseas accommodation around the Spring Festival period have roughly doubled year-on-year. Many travelers are choosing to stagger trips before or after the official holiday to secure better prices and less crowded itineraries.

Travel agencies are embedding New Year elements into overseas tour products, allowing travelers to retain a sense of festivity even while abroad.

Li Mengran, marketing manager of Beijing-based travel agency Utour, said the company has continued its long-standing practices in European tour products. These include customized reunion dinners and dumpling-making activities, alongside wine tastings and interactive prize draws.

"For family travelers, we also prepare red-envelope gifts for children under 16 to enhance the sense of ritual and warmth during the journey,"Li said.

Domestically, culturally rich "intangible heritage towns" are emerging as popular destinations. Data from Qunar show that cities such as Huangshan in Anhui, Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, Quanzhou in Fujian, Foshan in Guangdong and Zigong in Sichuan — all offering immersive intangible cultural heritage experiences — have seen particularly strong hotel booking growth during the winter holiday and Spring Festival period.

Inbound tourism is also gaining momentum.

Qunar data show that bookings for domestic flights made using non-Chinese passports during the Spring Festival holiday are up more than 20 percent year-on-year, underscoring the holiday's growing role as a window for international visitors to experience Chinese culture.

This rebound reflects sustained policy support. By the first three quarters of 2025, visa-free inbound visits reached 20.89 million, up more than 50 percent year-on-year. Since the introduction of the 240-hour transit visa-free policy, inbound arrivals across ports have risen 27.2 percent.

The World Travel & Tourism Council forecasts that China's tourism sector will grow at an average annual rate of 7 percent over the next decade, with the country on track to become the world's largest tourism market by 2031, surpassing the United States.

People interact with a robot from Unitree Robotics at the company's first offline store in Beijing on Dec 31. ZHANG XIANGYI/CHINA NEWS SERVICE

Economists say the early consumption surge reflects the combined effects of policy support, longer holidays and evolving consumer preferences.

The Central Economic Work Conference held in December placed expanding domestic demand as the top priority of China's economic policy in 2026, with multiple consumption-supporting policies already rolled out or in the pipeline.

Su Jian, a professor at Peking University's School of Economics, said consumption growth has been most visible in services and fast-evolving consumer electronics, including tourism, cultural products, sports and entertainment. Rapid upgrade cycles, he added, continue to support demand for electronics.

Since last year, targeted consumption-boosting campaigns have delivered tangible results. In 2025, trade-in-related sales exceeded 2.6 trillion yuan, benefiting more than 360 million consumer transactions. Optimized trade-in programs introduced in 2026 are now translating into concrete market activity across regions.

International observers have also noted structural changes underway. In its latest flagship annual report, global consultancy Roland Berger said China has entered the "consumption 4.0" era, characterized by resilience.

China's consumption structure is shifting rapidly from survival-oriented spending toward development — and experience-oriented demand, the report noted. By elevating domestic demand expansion to a strategic priority, and encouraging a move from quantitative satisfaction to qualitative enrichment, policymakers are using consumption upgrading to drive supply-side innovation and support high-quality growth.

Boosting consumption, policymakers emphasize, is not a short-term fix, but a long-term strategy.

A State Council executive meeting held on Jan 16 reviewed progress in the consumption-boosting campaign and outlined further steps to cultivate new growth points in service consumption.

The meeting called for improving long-term mechanisms for promoting consumption, raising urban and rural household incomes, implementing the paid leave system and removing unreasonable restrictive measures for consumption.