Why Chinese people spend so much on food

Feb 26th 2026|5 min read

During the Spring Festival holiday, which this year lasted from February 15th to 23rd, China regroups and regathers. People cross the country on fast trains to join their families, watch dancing robots on TV and hand out red packets of crisp banknotes to younger relatives. But above all, they gather to eat. In a café in Fuzhou, a southern city, locals and tourists ate cheesecake and drank kombucha. One customer ordered wontons wrapped in “swallow skin” sheets, which mash together sweet-potato starch and pounded pork. “I really like eating,” said Yu Huan, another customer, who works in fashion in Shanghai. “It’s one of the ways I obtain happiness.”