Festivities in Shanghai

Private individuals are benefiting from the frugality campaign aimed at government officials, as major Shanghai hotels offer affordable Lunar New Year menus. Xu Junqian gives a round-up.

The ban on publicly funded banquets or "any form of extravagant spending" by the central government was ruthless but effective and the numbers are showing it. According to the Ministry of Commerce, revenue growth chalked up by the country's food and beverage industry in 2013 has been the slowest since 1991, except for 2003, the year SARS hit China.

In Shanghai, supposedly the "hotbed and greenhouse of extravagant spending", the buzzwords in the hotels are "value-for-money", practical "earthy" packages and "affordable" meals during the Lunar New Year about to gallop in.