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
Peaceful protests originally driven by economic conditions in Iran spiraled into more volatile and violent unrests as a result of foreign agents infiltrating the demonstrations, Iranian professor Foad Izadi has said.
Protests have erupted in several Iranian cities since late December over the sharp fall in the national currency, the rial, and long-standing economic hardships. The reported death toll from the unrest on both sides of the security forces and civilians is mounting.
During an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Izadi, a professor of world studies at the University of Tehran, said that what began as peaceful demonstrations in the Iranian capital and across the country soon grew into something far worse as a result of outside interference.
"Initially, we had legitimate protests. Iran's currency fluctuated, and a number of shopkeepers were affected negatively by because of this fluctuation. It was a peaceful protest, nothing happened, no injuries, nothing. But quickly, we had organized opposition, generally led by the former Shah's son, that took over these demonstrations. So in the last 10 days or so, we have had no real demonstrations," he said.
Izadi said that there are signs that certain foreign countries are responsible for fomenting unrest on the ground.
Writing on social media earlier this month, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is also a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, did acknowledge the presence of Israeli agents operating on the ground in Iran, wishing "Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also to every Mossad agent walking beside them."
"We have had riots. We have had Mossad agents infiltrating these riots and shooting at the police. We have had over 100 police casualties in the last 10 days or so. How do we know that? The former CIA director and former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, sent these Mossad agents New Year's message greeting, saying that alongside protesters you have Mossad agents walking, which is true, because Iranian authorities have arrested a number of Mossad agents," Izadi said.
The scholar said the infiltration is an attempt to provoke riots by Israel, which he views as a violent agitator, noting that the country killed over 70,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during its assault on the besieged enclave.
"So we have confirmation on the American side, and we have confirmation on the Iranian side, that this is not a protest. When you have intelligence services of a regime that finished killing 70,000 people just a few months ago infiltrating demonstrations, that is not demonstrations. That's going to be riots," he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened military action against Iran if the country's leadership continued to crack down on protests.
Peaceful protests turned violent with foreign infiltration: Iranian political scholar
