Giving presents of imported food, such as cookies, wine and chocolates, for the Spring Festival has become increasingly popular.
Many people think Western gifts give a different touch to the traditional Chinese festival, Thursday's Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.
"Western snack packages are very pretty and look good as gifts," said a shopper called Yang who bought chocolates at a supermarket in Futian District.
Supermarket staff also said imported food, such as candy, cookies, wine and nuts, were selling well this year. "Chinese people have already become accustomed to eating these snacks. Although they are more expensive, many people still come to buy them," a salesgirl told the newspaper.
Most imported snacks were promoted for bulk purchases. A popular brand of butter cookies had a 2-percent cash-back offer for purchases to the value of 1,500 to 2,999 RMB (228-456 USD) and 7-percent cash-back for purchases of more than 10,000 RMB.
Some people also bought imported food for themselves for the festival. "We eat traditional Chinese food every year and wanted a change this year," said a resident named Li Jian. Apart from traditional Chinese food, Li bought ingredients to make cakes and he also planned to make foreign food such as sushi, pasta and Southeast Asian food for the family during the festival.
Online purchases of festival products had also become popular in recent years with many shopping Web sites promoting "Spring Festival markets," the newspaper said.
A customer service manager of a bulk purchase Web site told the paper they had received a lot of orders in the past few days. Nuts, dried food, rice and edible oil were the most popular.
(By Wang Yuanyuan)
