CRI听力:Gift Consumption at Public Expenses Curbed

Unlike what happened in the past few year when the public was complaining about the excessively packaged, most moon cakes available in markets are of much cheaper price this year, ranging from one to several hundred yuan.

However, that doesn't mean expensive gift package have gone.

At a high-end hotel in Beijing, one of the moon cake gift packages is priced at nearly 1,700 yuan. What kind of moon cakes are in this box? The sales girl says:

"It has a bottle of wine, a box of chocolates, some olive oil, good tea, nuts, plus 8 moon cakes."

At another hotel, a gift package is priced at 2,000 yuan. A particular caterpillar fungus, a very expensive traditional Chinese medicine, is attached to the top of each moon cake.

The sales girl at this hotel says one day, they sold more than 100 such high end gift packages.

These high-priced purchases are made by either big companies or governmental departments.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is around the corner.

To curb corruption and reduce consumption at the public's expenses, government on the national and local level have reiterated that any form of luxury gift consumption by officials is prohibited.

In southern coastal city of Xiamen, the municipal government has issued documents to all government departments ordering a stop to any gift or banquet consumption using public expenses.

Hu Kangning, general manager of a restaurant in Xiamen, says the frugality promoted by government at all levels is changing the catering market trend.

"In the past, we would treat customers differently. For instance, we'd only accept orders for high-end and luxury banquets because we want to make the most profit. Now, we accept orders for small events like school class parties, friends meeting up or family gatherings. These orders now account for a big portion of our revenue. Our prices have declined by about one third."

Since December last year, the Communist Party of China leadership has banned lavish spending of public money. While most officials have disciplined themselves, some still do it behind closed doors.

The CPC's austerity drive has witnessed remarkable progress in fighting corruption so far. It has to be made a long-lasting policy and public supervision is necessary.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.