I started a business with my husband, I am Cao Jinxiu, from Zhenba County, southern Shaanxi, born in the 80s, living in a small village in the Qinba Mountains, after graduating from high school, I married my husband.
When we were in our twenties, we decided to come to the provincial capital together to develop. My husband used to work in sales and courier business, while I started working as a waitress in a hotel. After a few years of hard work, we finally have some savings.
In 2016, I decided to go abroad to learn baking techniques. After returning from our studies, we opened a cake shop in a neighborhood near Chaoyangmen, specializing in making and selling all kinds of pastries.
My business is okay, I have always insisted on doing business in a real way, ** fair, mainly relying on loyal repeat customers. Over time, I have amassed a large number of regular customers.
Although I am not at home, the task of gift-giving seems to be never completed. On the twenty-sixth day of the lunar month, I took my children back to my hometown for the New Year. In just three days, we went to six places to give gifts: there were four families in the village, there were daughters and daughters-in-law, and my mother's family also had two happy events to do.
The human touch in the village is very strong, five years ago it was enough to send 200 yuan, but now it is not enough to see, at least 300 yuan to start. As for relatives' houses, each place costs more than 500 yuan. For example, when my uncle's second son got married, I gave me a gift of 1,000 yuan. In the past three days, I have given out a total of nearly 3,000 yuan.
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, it was the birthday of my third grandfather, and our family had a treat, and we gave another 500 yuan. When I went back for the Chinese New Year, I gave 2,000 yuan each to my in-laws and parents. Coupled with the purchase of New Year's supplies, the 10,000 cash brought back was spent in the blink of an eye.
On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, while the highway was free, our family set off and left. However, today, I received a WeChat call from my neighbor, and I learned that an old man in the village will hold his 70th birthday on the 11th day of the first lunar month, and it is a grand celebration. The old man's three sons went around informing relatives, friends, and villagers. Since they didn't have my **, I had to ask the neighbors to inform me.
This situation is a real headache! Obviously, we spend most of our time doing business in other places, and we rarely return to our hometown, and our birthdays are not a big deal, but they have to inform us, obviously to collect money. If we were in our hometown, we would have gone in person, but now that we're gone, we have to bother finding someone to bring gifts, so we just want to give money.
And there are too many things in my hometown, there are many old people, there are many children, all kinds of things have to be done, to be honest, I really don't want to participate, but if you don't give gifts, it will be disgusting, and we also have old people in our family, and we may need help from people in the village in the future.
This is the case in rural areas, where some people hold banquets so often that if you don't give a gift once, they will hold a grudge.
My husband and wife spend most of our time in other places, but there are constant ceremonies in our hometown, whether it is a college banquet, an engagement banquet or a confinement party, we are required to attend in person, and if we can't go, we have to send gifts. The total amount of gift money given out every year is about 15,000.
If the family doesn't do any happy events for a few years, it will lose a lot of money, and I'm really fed up with this kind of human contact, it's too tiring. In contrast, Guanzhong is much better, the weight of favor is lighter, and the general relationship only needs to send about 200 yuan, and the slightly more intimate relationship will be sent. This kind of gift is much easier.
It's really unbearable to work hard year after year, and most of it is spent on socializing. I heard that Hunan and Sichuan also have heavy human contacts, and I think that our southern Shaanxi may be even heavier than those places.
I wonder what the standards for gift-giving are in other regions?