CRI听力: Costly Spring Festival

Spring Festival is the most important holiday for Chinese people to celebrate and have family reunions. But many young people complain that the holiday has become too costly for them.

After the long vacation of Spring Festival, many young people are talking online about the expenses they incurred during the holiday. Most of them say the holiday has become too pricey to be enjoyable.

A netizen nicknamed "Bu Cha Qian" posted a thread on the internet listing his costs during Spring Festival, including gifts for relatives and friends and money he gave to his parents and younger relatives.

"Bu Cha Qian" says he spent a total of more than 10 thousand yuan, or nearly 1,500 U.S. dollars. Although he has a fairly good income, he says spending so much money was a big burden and jokingly calls himself a "Festival Slave."

"I've got great (financial) pressures this year. Since I just got married, the number of friends and relatives doubled, and the expenses were therefore much higher. It's the Chinese tradition that people give presents to each other during the festival. If they don't want to lose face, the gifts should not be too cheap. I had no choice."

A survey on an online forum on the website Ttyva.org indicates that about 30 percent of 60 respondents said they spent between 2,000 to 5,000 yuan during the Spring Festival holiday.

About 26 percent said they spent between 5,000 and 10,000 yuan, and 15 percent spent more than 10,000 yuan.

Giving red envelopes is a Chinese tradition for certain festive occasions. The envelopes contain money which is given during the Spring Festival or some other special events such as weddings. It is a Chinese custom for adults to give red envelopes to children or their seniors during the holiday to represent good luck.

A recent survey by the Chongqing Night Post indicates that more than 65 percent of the nearly 290 participants said they spent more than twice their monthly income on red envelopes during the Spring Festival.

Round-trip plane and train tickets have also been a major cost for people who work far from their hometowns. Instead of spending money on pricey transportation, some decided to remain in the cities where they work or use other methods to send greetings to their families.

"We rarely give gifts during festivals. Though we live in Beijing, we are not originally from here. We do not have many relatives or friends here, so we don't have to spend much on social engagements."

"I sent greetings to my friends via SMS messages, which only cost me some 20 yuan."(www.hXen.com)

"We stayed at home most of the time and only visited several relatives in Beijing. We have made a budget of giving out gifts. Because I have a child, I can get some money back through the red envelopes my child got from others."

As the biggest event for Chinese people, the Spring Festival should be a sweet and happy time. But now it has turned into a very pricey holiday for some.

Many netizens believe people should focus on the meaning of the holiday itself rather than the material part and rationally plan how much they will spend on gifts and red envelopes.