Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is round table.
Summer nights are magical nights.
If you live in China.
Search your memory and you might find images of children running wild after fireflies in the yard, teenage boys jumping up and down in basketball courts.
Young lovers confiding their feelings to each other on a bench hidden beneath camphor trees.
Hello, I'm Lai Ming, and this is roundtable.
Beginning from today, we will present a series of discussions about summer nights, the things to do, the places to be, and the joys and opportunities, if everybody would just seize the moment.
Joining the show today are Li and Brandon Yates.
And since this is the first episode of the series, we begin with some general pictures about what people do in night time here in China.
Well, sure.
So basically, when talking about night economy, usually we're talking about activities, actually various activities taking place, especially in town and urban centers, between the hours of 06:00 p.m.
and 06:00 a.m.
and these activities can include, say, retail, catering, culture, leisure, transportation and accommodation, and of course, sports and fitness.
We're talking about today.
And actually, China's nighttime economy has grown rapidly since the year of 2016, and especially in, in 2019, the state Council proposed to activate nighttime business and markets.
According to a very interesting survey conducted by the Ministry of Commerce on Urban Residence consumption habits, about 60% of consumption here in China occurs at night.
And the period from 06:00 p.m.
to 02:00 a.m.
next day has become really a golden time, a prime time for many residents to make purchases.