Bright red decorations, booming music and every manner of tiger regalia fill Beijing's streets ahead of China's New Year holiday.

People in China generally wear red to ensure good luck during their own animal year, but the vendor at one stall said most Beijing residents wear red regardless of which animal year it is, just to make sure luck comes their way.

Gold shops also enjoy the New Year period as hundreds of customers flocked to Beijing Caibai Shopping Mall to buy gold tiger figurines.

Shopper Guo Jing says a New Year bonus from her company has eased her spending worries.

[Guo Jing, Shopper]:
"The end of the year is approaching and companies will double wages, so there is more money around and I will buy some presents for my parents and my family members. This will bring them happiness and good luck."

Retail sales figures for December were already up by 17 percent from last year in a spending trend likely to last through to the New Year.

[Yolanda Fernandez Lommen, Asia Development Bank Economist]:
"Sales have been very high in December at 17.7 percent and this is explained by the year-end sales, this year we had earlier than usual big sale campaigns in big department stores and that has propelled retail sales and consumption in 2009, in particular at the end of the year and this is going to be sustained until the Chinese New Year."

But while sales boom, the mass migration of China's workforce back to their hometowns causes a lull in production. Many of China's migrant workers return home just once a year and they stay for several weeks, so it can take a while for the productivity rates to recover.

While migrants prepare to return home, Beijing locals have already started stocking up at markets.

Food takes its share of the New Year bill, with companies and individuals celebrating the season with a variety of meals and delicacies.

Beijing's fruit stalls bristle with boxes of fruit baskets filled with imported exotic fruits, which tend to be pricier than local fruits.

Beijing resident Zhang Luying says money is not an object when it comes to the New Year.

[Zhang Luying, Beijing Resident]:
"Adults and children all have to appear new, with new clothes, from inside to out. At the moment our household has money, I don't think about money. It's about eating, dressing well and having fun."

Also important on the New Year shopping list is a ticket home.

Crowds of travelers are already packing Beijing's central train station, hoping to buy a seat or even just standing space on a train.

This year, an estimated 200 million travelers will surge onto trains, buses and planes for the crushed journey back home, to spend the New Year Festival with their families.