A lot of people enjoy time at barbecue stands in Jinghong city, Xishuangbanna Prefecture. [Zhang Cheng/Yunnan net]

As the COVID-19 subsides and economy is gradually warming up, night economy, as a barometer of urban vitality, ushers in its prosperity with the help of government. When you walk into a night market, you can see people drinking and chatting in pubs, hear the voice of vendors, and smell the flavor of rice noodles. It not only promotes industrial restructuring, but also lights up the hustle and bustle of life.

On June 15, journalist learned from the big data takeout report released by Meituan that orders during the night period in Yunnan accounted for more than 35% of the total orders in the whole day.

The boss is baking roasted tofu, a kind of local cuisine in Yunnan. [Zhang Cheng/Yunnan net]

In fact, food consumption has become a new trend in Yunnan's night economy development. The food take-out orders have tripled compared with the pandemic period. Especially, the night orders have grew over 20 percent month-on-month since April in Kunming, Lijiang, Xishuangbanna, which has shown strong momentum in driving the recovery of night economy.

Data shows that 38.6% of takeout merchants in Kunming run business to 22:00, and 22.9%  even to the next morning.

Fast food is the most popular during 18:00 to 20:00, followed by kebab, rice noodles, western-style fast food and Yunnan cuisine. From 22:00 to the early morning, sales of kebab, rice noodles and fried food go up.

Deng Haojing, general manager of Jianxinyuan, said that there are more than 60 direct and franchised stores in Kunming, of which nearly 20% of the stores provide customers with 24-hour dine-in or take-out services.

A deliver guy is taking away rice noodles late at night.

Pangdawan Small-Pot Rice Noodles is one of the businesses operating until early morning. Its co-founder, Ren Dongping said that take-out orders at night have evidently increased compared with the orders in daytime, and customers always order with some appetizing snacks such as fried potatoes, friend tofu and kebab.

Click here to view Chinese report

(Editors:Rachel, Alison)