- Picky gourmets can now tickle their taste buds with fresher durians as transporting the fruit to China has become easier for exporters in Thailand, all thanks to the China-Laos Railway.

Recently, self-heating hot pot products have developed rapidly to satisfy picky palates in the form of instant meals.

Many ham companies have been spending heavily on innovation to meet the changing appetite of picky foodies.

Likewise, Shanghai-based Pros Coffee Roaster developed Blue Latte－a tasty blend whose color ranges from blue to white to please visually oriented yet "picky" coffee lovers.

To win the hearts of picky Chinese customers, China's sports brands have also worked hard to improve the design and cultural connotations of their products.

They are picky, and care about brand image.

Upstream, the consumers are getting picky, and they like non-generic quality wines that are produced for a specific group of buyers," he said.

Xiao Yanyan, a senior manager for media at CITIC Securities, said: "What appeared to be different this year is that people might be more picky about content, as they are now enjoying more varied ways to celebrate this traditional family reunion time, such as browsing short videos on Douyin (one of China's most popular video-sharing platforms).

How to pinpoint, attract and retain picky diners among the variety of dining choices has been a longtime malaise plaguing the industry.

Some sales managers also said that although consumers are picky, price discounts are still a very important factor in affecting the decisions of Chinese consumers.