The price for holding wedding banquets also jumped. Jin Jiang Tower said its average charge was 6,500 yuan per table, up 9.8 percent from a year earlier.
Sales of jewelry expanded 27 percent on an annual basis during the holiday, surpassing the growth of food and electrical appliances, which rose 24.2 percent and 24 percent respectively.
Fewer people dined out to celebrate the arrival of the Chinese lunar New Year. The 110 restaurants tracked by the commission said they sold 9,542 tables on the eve of the lunar New Year, down 4.9 percent from a year earlier.
The growth of online sales of holiday products surged compared with big brick-and-mortar stores. E-commerce climbed 33.5 percent during the seven-day holiday, while hypermarkets had sales growth of 2.8 percent.
But online shopping also triggered the most complaints during the holiday, with 65 people dialing the 12315 city hotline to file a complaint, compared with those complaining about food (39) and electronic products (35).
More than 3.35 million tourists visited Shanghai during the holiday, up 6.7 percent from the same period of last year, the Shanghai Tourism Administration said yesterday. More than 52,420 Shanghai residents chose to go overseas to celebrate the festival, a big jump from previous years, the administration said.
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