Chinese card payment giant China UnionPay and Chinese online payment clearing house NetsUnion Clearing Corporation reported surging transactions during the first seven days of the 2025 Spring Festival holiday, which lasts from Jan 28 to Feb 4, according to the China’s central bank.
During the period, the two platforms handled a total of 22.078 billion payment transactions, with a transaction value of 8.52 trillion yuan (about 1.18 trillion U.S. dollars), up 25.70 percent and 17.08 percent respectively from a year ago, data from the People’s Bank of China showed.
Notably, payment transactions involving international visitors to China saw a significant rise, with the transaction volume increasing by 127.30 percent year on year and the transaction value growing by 93.54 percent from the previous year.
China’s transactions rise during Spring Festival holiday
Imports and exports of goods to and from China’s Yangtze River Delta region hit an all-time high of 16.01 trillion yuan (about 2.23 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2024, according to the Shanghai Customs authorities.
This figure translates into a 5.6 percent year-on-year increase in foreign trade value in the region, accounting for 36.5 percent of China’s total foreign trade value in the year, according to the customs authorities.
The export value of high-end equipment in the region reached 261.16 billion yuan (about 36.35 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, contributing 56.7 percent of the country’s total, while exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 5.96 trillion yuan (about 830 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 39.4 percent of the country’s total.
Smart products and components, such as phones, tablet computers, integrated circuits, and lithium batteries, have grown into a major force to drive the exports of mechanical and electrical products from the Yangtze River Delta region.
“Mechanical and electrical products are the largest category of exports from the Yangtze River Delta region, and are also the foundation to stabilize the development of foreign trade. As an important component of high-tech products and a major commodity in international trade, the steady growth of the export of mechanical and electrical products reflects the upgrading of the industrial structure and the improvement of the technical level in the region, which is conducive to enhancing the stability and resilience of the regional economy,” said Qu Huili, head of the statistics division at Shanghai Customs.
The value of the Yangtze River Delta region’s trade with Belt and Road partner countries reached 7.7 trillion yuan (about 1.07 trillion U.S. dollars), while the value of its trade with other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) totaled 4.9 trillion yuan (about 682 billion U.S. dollars). Trade with other BRICS countries amounted to 2.13 trillion yuan (about 296.45 billion U.S. dollars), the customs data showed.
Yangtze River Delta in east China reports record-high foreign trade in 2024
