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Q: What do people do about food during Chinese New Years?
I was told that if I plan to stay home (Jinjiang Fujian) that I should stock up on food. This is because a lot of places will be closed. Will big supermarkets(wallmart, RT Mart )be opened ? How far in advance should I start buying food? Has anyone experience now having a lot of food during the Chinese New Year holiday? What did you do and your advice. Thanks.
9 years 13 weeks ago in Food - Other cities
Dont worry about it. It might be a little bit more inconvenient depending on where you are but this isnt the apocalypse. You will not starve.
The local corner store might be closed but larger supermarkets should stay open and most restaurants will as well. All of the families are finally together so most of them go out to eat and celebrate.
I remember my first year here (Nanjing) and I thought the same. But it's not like everything shuts down for a whole week. Obviously most places will close on New Year's day, and all "mom and pop" style shops and restaurants (ie the smaller non-chain stores) will close for a good few days as the owners go home. Worst comes to worst, MacDonalds stays open. If you usually cook yourself, might be wise to at least stock up for a day a two just for New Year's day. Most little food markets will be open New Year's eve for those last minute food shoppers, same with supermarkets, but my god, don't go to a supermarket around New Years. It's like Black Friday.
Stock for 3 days, maybe 5 if you live in an industrial area where everybody is from somewhere else.
You can buy a week in advance water, coffee, rice, noodles, ready-made dumplings, this kind of things that you can keep for a long time. If you do that a week day, in the morning, you will avoid crowds. Buy your vegetables a couple of days in advance, in your usual market.
Every big chains supermarkets (RT Mart, Walmart, Carrefour, ...) will be opened, but running with minimun staff, during Chinese New Year. Every convenience stores (7-11, Lawson, Family Mart, ...) will also be opened. Every restaurant chains will open as usual.
Only your local private owned shop or restaurant will be closed.
As said above, don't worry about not being to buy things. The reason to stock up before is so you have to brave the crowds in the supermarket.
i remember in the 90's when the banks would close for a whole week. Foreigners couldn't use most ATMs here yet because they were not hooked up internationally yet. I remember finding an ATM in Kunming that had PLUS. That was 1998.
