"What the spring festival is about". Today is the last day of the Spring Festival holiday. During the festival, Chinese people make new year resolutions and express their hopes for the year to come.
Well that's the last episode of our series Spring Festival report. We wish you a happy Chinese New Year.
People walk in and out of this retail and wholesale market in Beijing, doing their new year shopping. The financial crisis doesn't seem to be at the front of most shoppers' minds.
Special new year products are the most popular. But other vendors are also confident. The owner of this crystal shop in Tianyi Market has been in business for a dozen years. She says business is good, and she has not felt any effects from the economic downturn.
The market's vice manager, Li Qingfu, says instead of poor sales, they are seeing more opportunities.
Many products that would previously have been destined for overseas markets are now on sale here for instance, this porcelain ware.
Li says exports from factories in southern China have been hit by the global economic slowdown, and they are now looking to increase domestic sales.
Li is optimistic and confident about the future.
Li Qingfu, vice manager, Tianyi market, said, "The year of the ox is an opportunity for us, since more high-income earners are now turning to our market to shop."
Despite this positive outlook for retailers, some people are concerned about unemployment.
Reports from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security say, China's urban unemployment rate was 4.2 percent at the end of 2008, up 0.2 percent year on year.
The government is taking measures to increase employment. Governments at all levels are playing their part, from policy making to policy implementation.
Zhang Lixin is on the Desheng Neighborhood Committee in Beijing's Xicheng District. She is early for work today, as the committee is holding a job fair for unemployed people in the neighborhood.
As they represent the government at the grassroots level, the neighborhood committee has strengthened its efforts to increase the employment rate.
