Restaurants and food delivery companies have seen a surge in late-night business as World Cup fever takes hold in soccer-mad China, where most of the matches in host country Russia happen in the evenings local time.
Fans staying up late to catch the action are indulging in summer favourites such as barbecued meat, crayfish and beer, as well as healthier choices like fruit, yogurt and fish soup, The Beijing Daily reported on Tuesday.
Food delivery company Ele.me said that for each of the first four matches in the tournament that began on Thursday, its customers ordered an average total of 3.05 million crayfish and 400,000 bottles of beer.
And for the first two nights of the World Cup, orders placed between 9pm and 2am were triple the number made at the same time last year, the company said.
