Click the image for details We conducted a small study on regional differences in China using 2016 offline urban consumption data provided by UnionPay Smart Information Services (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. We selected over 300 prefecture-level cities nationwide as research subjects and classified them by urban development level and geographic location (classification criteria detailed in the notes at the end). These 300+ cities look roughly like this on a map: What aspects of regional consumption differences are reflected? I. Differences in Nighttime Consumption Nighttime consumption activity in the north and south varies with seasons differently This may be because People in both north and south fear the cold But the north has heating As we all know, China is a large country. The influence of longitude and latitude on local habits is reflected in all aspects of daily life. This article first explores the activity level of nighttime consumption. Based on the overall time distribution of consumption nationwide, we define consumption occurring between 21:00 and 3:00 as nighttime consumption, and use the proportion of nighttime consumption to total daily consumption to measure nighttime consumption activity in each region. The nighttime consumption activity of each province is shown in the figure below: In the figure, the darker the color, the more active the nighttime consumption. It can be seen that the two Guang (Guangdong, Guangxi) in South China and the three northwestern provinces (Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai) have the highest nighttime consumption activity. We will set aside the "nighttime consumption" in the northwest for now. Why is nighttime consumption activity higher as you go further south? We compared the nighttime activity of each city in the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and summarized the trends as shown below: From the figure above: Southern cities (yellow line, represented by Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan) maintain nighttime consumption activity of 7%-9% throughout the year, with the highest in summer and the lowest in winter. That is, the southern region has a mild climate, suitable for outdoor activities at night, but southerners are also most afraid of the cold, and hide in their blankets at home once winter arrives. Central cities (blue line, represented by Shanghai, Chengdu, Changsha) maintain nighttime consumption activity around 4% throughout the year, with the highest in summer, the lowest in autumn, and a slight rebound in winter, roughly flat with spring. Northern cities (gray line, represented by Changchun, Tieling, Shenyang) have nighttime consumption activity of only 2%, but from summer to winter, the colder the weather, the more vigorous the nighttime consumption. A colleague from the northeast explained this phenomenon: Northerners don't love going out on winter nights; it's all the fault of heating. During the day, the uniformly heated indoors are so warm and comfortable that they refuse to go out. Only after staying home until dark and their buttocks ache from sitting do they suddenly remember they should exercise, so they go out—to have skewers. I cannot judge whether this answer is scientific, but from the trend that nighttime consumption activity drops sharply after heating stops in March, it seems to make some sense. In addition, if you observe carefully, in adjacent regions, cities with higher development levels often have richer nightlife. For example, Beijing and Tianjin have higher nightlife indices than the overall level of Northeast and North China, and Shanghai's nightlife index is higher than that of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. II. Differences in Dining Consumption 12:00 and 7:00 are China's standard "meal times" Western meal times are 2 hours later than eastern ones Northerners spend more on lunch Southerners spend more on dinner Besides nightlife, the influence of longitude and latitude on daily life is also reflected in "meal times," i.e., eating times. From the figure above, there are two obvious peaks at 11:00-13:00 and 18:00-20:00. Undoubtedly, these two periods are China's "meal times." However, when compared by region, the "meal times" of various cities differ greatly. China is vast, spanning 5 time zones in longitude. Although all regions uniformly use Beijing time (UTC+8), daily routines still largely follow local time zone rules. Take Urumqi, a typical northwestern city, and Harbin, a typical northeastern city, as examples. These two cities are located in the East Sixth and East Eighth time zones, respectively. Their meal times are shown below: It can be seen that Harbin (gray line) has meal times at 11:00, 12:00, 18:00, and 19:00, while Urumqi (blue line) has meal times at 13:00, 14:00, 20:00, and 21:00. The meal times of the two cities differ by exactly 2 hours. Those who love staying up late and getting up late might consider supporting the development of the northwest; "go to work at 10, leave at 7" is not a dream. Time zone differences can also explain the active "nighttime consumption" in the northwest: 9 PM Beijing time is only 7 PM local time, and in summer, the sun is still above the horizon at that time. (Note: Daily routines are influenced by multiple factors such as geographic time zone, Beijing time, administrative orders, and local customs. For simplicity, the "nighttime period" here uniformly uses Beijing time.) In addition to meal times, we also calculated the average lunch and dinner consumption amounts in various regions. Do people spend more on lunch or dinner? Since offline card-swipe dining consumption is not fully representative of daily dining consumption, we do not compare absolute amounts but rather the ratio of the two. The results are shown below: It can be seen that in Northeast, Central China, Northwest, and Southwest, average lunch consumption is higher than dinner; in North China, East China, and South China, dinner is higher than lunch—overall, northern cities spend more on lunch than southern cities. III. Differences in Holiday Consumption Consumption power doubles during National Day Traditional festivals show obvious pre-consumption effects Ethnic minority regions love festivals more Best to eat on the first day of the festival Besides daily eating, drinking, and entertainment, how do Chinese people celebrate festivals? During festivals, does offline consumption surge? We selected five statutory holidays: Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Labor Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, and National Day, and calculated the ratio of personal offline consumption (dining, retail, entertainment) during the festival to the average consumption in the week before and after the festival. The results are shown below: Unexpectedly, except for personal offline consumption during National Day, which nearly doubled (possibly because National Day is the only seven-day long holiday besides Spring Festival, and many people travel or gather with family and friends), during traditional festivals (Qingming, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn), personal offline consumption decreased compared to usual. To further investigate this, I pulled the daily consumption data for Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn festivals, as shown below: It can be seen that in the week before these two festivals, personal offline consumption was basically stable, with a small peak 3 days before the festival; on the first day of the festival, consumption dropped to a low point, then gradually recovered on the second and third days, and quickly returned to normal after the festival. This may mean that people start purchasing various items before the traditional festival, and on the actual day of the festival, they do not consume outside. After looking at Han traditional festivals, let's look at how ethnic minorities celebrate festivals. We selected the Yi Torch Festival (July 27-30, 2016, in Yuxi, Yunnan, and Liangshan, Sichuan) and the Uyghur Corban Festival (September 11-14, 2016, in Xinjiang) for comparison. Comparing the festival consumption trends of ethnic minorities with those of Han people, we can see two significant differences: Ethnic minority festivals show a consumption peak starting 3 days before the festival, much more pronounced than Han festivals; On the first day of the ethnic minority festival, consumption remains at a relatively high level, then decreases day by day, returning to normal after the festival. If we measure "festival enthusiasm" by the ratio of consumption power 3 days before the festival to usual consumption power, there is no doubt that ethnic minorities are more enthusiastic about their own festivals than Han people. However, although the atmosphere of Han traditional festivals is not as strong as that of ethnic minorities, there is still some persistence, such as—eating, preferably on the first day of the festival. We calculated the proportion of dining consumption on each day of the three-day holiday to the total dining consumption during the holiday. The result is that all small holidays show the same pattern without exception: first day > second day > third day. The summary is as follows: Moreover, the more economically underdeveloped the region, the higher the enthusiasm for eating on the first day of the small holiday. See the figure below: IV. Regional Imbalance from a Consumption Perspective Consumption power in East and South China is several times that of Northwest and Northeast Government influence varies by region Provincial capitals in the west are more dominant In underdeveloped areas, education remains the main path for individuals However, besides the differences in living habits and ethnic diversity brought by China's vast territory, regional development imbalance is also an unavoidable issue in the development of a large country. The figure below shows the total offline consumption power of each region and the ranking of average consumption power of cities in the region: It can be seen that whether from the perspective of the entire region or the average level of individual cities, the trend of consumption power is consistent: East and South China lead, while Northwest and Northeast lag behind. Moreover, compared with the relatively free and open market economy environment in East and South China, many underdeveloped regions often rely more on government forces to build a relatively developed provincial capital with the province's full strength, in order to gain more regional discourse power. The figure below shows the relative consumption level of government agencies in each region: Relative consumption level = (offline consumption amount of a certain type in a region / total offline consumption in that region) / (offline consumption amount of that type nationwide / total offline consumption nationwide) It can be seen that the relative consumption level of government agencies is highest in Northeast, followed by Southwest, and lowest in East China. Let's also look at the dominance of provincial capitals in various regions: Dominance of provincial capital = total offline consumption of provincial capital / total offline consumption of the province It is obvious that in the entire western region and the northeastern region including Heilongjiang and Jilin, the dominance of provincial capitals is high; the further east and south along the coast, the lower the dominance of provincial capitals. Indeed, even from personal offline consumption data, the differences in economic development levels and models among China's regions are very obvious. What about the future? We see some positive signals from more detailed data. See the figure below: Although in terms of total education consumption and its proportion, the largest share is still in the more developed East and North China, from the perspective of relative consumption level, the proportion of education expenditure to total expenditure is higher in relatively poor and backward regions. From an individual development perspective, education consumption represents the possibility of self-improvement and development. Improving yourself (e.g., data analysis skills) is an investment that will never lose money in any era or place. Especially when you are in a relatively underdeveloped region. Notes: 1. The offline urban consumption data analysis in this article is sourced from UnionPay Smart Information Services (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. UnionPay Smart is a subsidiary of China UnionPay specializing in big data innovation, relying on full consumption data, and on the premise of protecting personal privacy and ensuring data security, it establishes and continuously improves its data service platform, providing commercial intelligence, precision marketing, and financial credit data value-added services for UnionPay and partners. 2. Urban development level
- First-tier cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen
- Quasi-first-tier cities: Tianjin, Chongqing, Shenyang, Chengdu, Wuhan, Nanjing, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Xiamen
- Strong second-tier cities: Dalian, Ningbo, Suzhou, Wuxi, Jinan, Foshan, Dongguan, Fuzhou, Changsha, Wenzhou, Quanzhou, Hefei, Taiyuan, Nanning, Changchun, Harbin, Shijiazhuang, Kunming, Guiyang, Nanchang
- Geographic regions
- East China: Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Shandong
- South China: Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan
- Central China: Hubei, Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi
- North China: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia
- Northeast: Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning
- Southwest: Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing, Tibet
- Northwest: Xinjiang, Qinghai, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Gansu
- The authors of this article are Tuan Zhishu and Tu Tu, originally created and first published by the WeChat public account "City Data Group". -END-