The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council's Facebook account has helped a Taiwan resident reunite with long-lost relatives on the Chinese mainland, said Zhu Fenglian, the office's spokeswoman, at a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday.
"Since our Facebook account was opened in October 2025, it has drawn strong attention from many compatriots in Taiwan and they hope to get assistance from the platform. We recently received messages from about 10 netizens in Taiwan hoping to get help to find their relatives on the mainland. We treat each one of them very carefully and coordinate our local branches to establish the contacts with them, verify their information, and proactively promote the search for their relatives. Thanks to the efforts of all parties, we have good news to share: our local branches in Hubei Province, Huanggang City, and Huangmei County have worked together to help one of these netizens find his long-lost relatives in Huangmei and are arranging their return to the hometown for ancestral worship," she said.
The spokeswoman said the office will continue to support Taiwan compatriots through the platform.
People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one family, and the office will certainly help when compatriots in Taiwan come to seek their families, Zhu said.
"We welcome more compatriots in Taiwan to follow our Facebook account, and we will continue to strengthen information dissemination and improve services to provide more practical assistance for them to find relatives, visit and exchange," she said.
Mainland social media account helps Taiwan resident reunite with long-lost relatives
More than a month ahead of the Chinese New Year, restaurants across China have reported a booming demand for reunion dinners, with popular places already fully reserved.
The family reunion dinners on the eve of the Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival, is the most important meal of the year for Chinese people. It has long been an essential part of celebrating the Chinese New Year. This year, the festival falls on Feb 17.
In Taiyuan, capital city of north China's Shanxi Province, one restaurant said all tables for the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner have been reserved.
"We now have 36 private rooms and 13 tables in the hall. The New Year's Eve dinner is fully booked. Many families started reserving as early as November 2025," said Han Huiyan, a restaurant manager.
To meet the demand, many restaurants start to offer takeaway banquet package that can be easily prepared at home, allowing families to enjoy a variety of festive dishes without dining out.
In Ningbo, a city in east China's Zhejiang Province, many popular restaurants said that they are approaching full reservation levels. To reduce peak demand, some restaurants now offer off-peak reunion dinners starting later at night.
"We now offer a 'second round' of New Year's Eve dinners, which start at 19:30. We also offer discount for such New Year's Eve dinners, a promotion of 20 percent off set menus," said Sun Lijuan, a restaurant manager.
In Lianyungang, a city in east China's Jiangsu Province, smaller private rooms of a local restaurant have been nearly sold out, and customized menus and home-delivery services have drawn strong interest.
"This year we have specially launched the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner delivery service. Bookings are very strong and customers really like this option," said Geng Maoran, a restaurant general manager.
Restaurants see surge in bookings for Chinese New Year's Eve dinners
