Lunar New Year puts barber shops under stress

Her hair wrapped in a plastic cap, 64-year-old Yang Shuxian settled into a chair in a bustling hair salon in downtown Beijing to get a perm for the Spring Festival, which falls on Feb 5 this year.

She had arrived at the salon, on Wangfujing Street, at around 7 am - two hours before it opened. But she was not attended to until supper time, just as she had expected.

"I would have to wait even longer in one or two days," she said. "The New Year is coming, and everybody wants to look smart while visiting their relatives."