Chinese New Year Sebaetdon Also in Digital Currency...This Time Pilot Operation in Beijing

50,000 Beijing Residents Unable to Return Home
Third Public Demonstration Following Shenzhen and Suzhou

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] To celebrate the year’s biggest holiday, the Lunar New Year holiday, the Chinese government announced that it will hold a digital yuan New Year's money-giving event for 50,000 Beijing citizens who cannot return to their hometowns. China’s public pilot operation of the digital yuan is the third, following Shenzhen and Suzhou in January, now extending to Beijing. In particular, this Lunar New Year public test is being conducted on a large scale one year ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics, where the digital yuan will be fully operational, attracting worldwide attention.

According to local Chinese media such as Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 12th, a Lunar New Year money-giving event worth a total of 10 million yuan is underway in Beijing during this Lunar New Year holiday, distributing 200 yuan (about 34,000 KRW) worth of digital yuan per person to 50,000 citizens who cannot go to their hometowns. To participate in this money-giving event, participants must be in Beijing based on GPS location and use a mainland China mobile phone number.

Winners receive digital yuan from the People's Bank of China by installing a dedicated mobile application to receive the digital yuan. During the Lunar New Year holiday period from the 10th to the 17th, winners can use the digital yuan at affiliated merchants both online and offline, including sports, clothing, footwear, movies, and hotels.

This event is a large-scale digital yuan test conducted by the Beijing city government one year ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Named the "Digital Wangfujing Ice and Snow Shopping Festival," this event is the third public test following the digital yuan public tests held in Shenzhen and Suzhou in January. Although digital yuan was trialed in some areas of Beijing at the end of last year, this is the first time a public pilot operation involving tens of thousands of people has been conducted in Beijing.

The Chinese government developed the digital yuan in 2019 and has been conducting public tests in major cities since October last year. The government aims to officially launch the digital yuan by early next year. This event is expected to continue throughout the year in major cities, both to raise expectations for the Beijing Winter Olympics and to prevent consumption contraction caused by COVID-19 prevention measures.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.