China’s reunion dinner: tradition thrives, innovation emerges (3)

Festival delivery online

In addition to eating out, the advancement of internet technologies has also made it possible to order half-finished dishes online, or even invite a chef to help out at home.

A quick search online using the keywords “half-finished reunion dinner” generates over 2,500 results on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao. Many prestigious restaurants, including Quanjude, sell ingredients and half-prepared reunion dinner packages online, with prices ranging from 150 RMB to 9,990 RMB.

A door-to-door dinner service is another option this year. From the comfort of their own homes, Chinese people can now design a personalized reunion dinner menu from a mobile app, as well as choosing the chef they want to cook it, for as little as 1,888 RMB.

According to a recent report released by Meituan, China’s online platform for ordering food, about 300 million Chinese people ordered food online in 2017, spending over 204 billion RMB.

“For those who want to continue the tradition of spending the New Year at home, the advancement of technologies has provided us new reunion dinner options. You can enjoy the cooking process without too much effort, or get a chef in to do it for you, which is great,” said Su.