The Chinese market is bustling with preparations for the Lunar New Year.

The Chinese consumer market is bustling with preparations for the year's major holiday, from essential Lunar New Year dishes to toys symbolizing the Year of the Horse. This is seen as a catalyst for boosting revenue for businesses, long-established brands, and local craft villages in China.

In Wuhan, the store is celebrating its 80th anniversary with a large-scale glutinous rice dumpling festival. In the consumer economy , long-established brands hold an absolute advantage in terms of customer trust. These glutinous rice dumplings, representing family reunion, are not just food, but a strategic financial product that helps businesses attract millions of customers every spring.

In Anhui province, artisanal rice cake factories are operating at full capacity. The word for rice cake in Chinese is a homophone for "getting higher each year," carrying the hope of greater fortune and prosperity this year than the last. This very belief in good luck has transformed rice cakes into an essential consumer item, contributing significantly to the GDP of local areas in the first quarter.

In southwestern China, the market for processed meats like sausages and bacon is reaching its peak. In Chengdu, streets are filled with the vibrant red of dried food, catering not only to local demand but also to the nationwide e-commerce market. The process from marinating and drying to packaging has been standardized, turning local specialties into a lucrative industry.

In the toy market, one interesting and surprising item this year is the stuffed horse. Originally created to welcome the upcoming Year of the Horse, the horse's initial design featured a radiant smile. However, due to a production error at a factory in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, the horse left the factory with a grimacing face because its mouth was sewn on upside down.

The story began when a social media user in Hangzhou received this defective teddy bear and contacted customer service to request an exchange. After the user posted photos of the horse's sad expression online, the toy suddenly became incredibly popular. Netizens quickly nicknamed it "the crying horse," and orders for this defective version began pouring in.

Ms. Zhang Huoqing, a small business owner, said: "That morning, when we saw the plush horse going viral online, by the afternoon, we immediately started mass-producing this product. Yiwu's speed is truly astonishing."

The Lunar New Year consumer landscape in China is bursting with vibrant colors. The combination of long-standing values ​​and the adaptability of the supply chain is expected to create exciting shopping experiences, promising breakthrough figures for this market of over a billion people.