1 . Popular topics during 2023 Spring Festival
E-CNY
Currently, 17 provincial-level regions in China have begun the use of digital yuan, or e-CNY. The Tianjin branch of China Construction Bank has also launched a digital yuan promotion activity, offering discounts of up to 50 percent to those who spend digital yuan on shopping during the Spring Festival holiday.
January box-office market
The first month of 2023 took a giant leap and became the highest-earning January of all time in China, selling a total of 201 million tickets for 10 million screenings in over 10,000 cinemas. Insiders said people started a new custom of going to cinemas during the Spring Festival and China’s improvement of COVID-19 control measures further made the January box-office earnings rise.
Tourism market
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said the tourism market recovers remarkably, with an increase of 23.1% compared to the same period last year. As for the income of the domestic tourism industry, travel data showed Chengdu, Shanghai and Guangzhou were the top 3 domestic destinations. It is also said that more than 2.3 million people have crossed the border, with 1.2 million entering and 1.1 million exiting.
The year of the cat instead of rabbit
Why? Legend has it that the cat and the rat were riding across a river on an ox to win the last seat in the zodiac (生肖) when the rat pushed the cat into the water and won the race. However, in the Vietnamese version — where there was no rabbit — the cat could swim and ended up arriving first. Funny as the story is, the change actually has something to do with language misunderstanding, as the word tied to the sign of the rabbit and pronounced mao (卯) is similar to mèo, the Vietnamese word for cat.
1. What may people in Tianjin do during the Spring Festival?| A．Get encouraged to go shopping. |
| B．Use e-CNY to promote an activity. |
| C．Start a new custom of traveling. |
| D．Offer discount to someone in need. |
| A．Bouncing back out of the same reason. |
| B．Encouraging a new trend during the holiday. |
| C．Experiencing a sharp decline several years ago. |
| D．Using statistics to show the industrial recovery. |
| A．Lack of rabbit in their country. |
| B．Different legends about the zodiac. |
| C．Similar pronunciation with certain Chinese. |
| D．Vietnamese’s preference for swimming eats. |
