Week-long holiday is seen as the ideal time to recover from the procedures Shanghai residents are putting on a new face for the Year of the Monkey, using the long holiday and year-end bonus to sign up for cosmetic surgery. While a new set of clothes used to suffice for the traditional festival, cosmetic surgery clinics have been catering to a booming trade this year as customers, mainly young women, opted for a nip and tuck. At a private clinic operated by the Shanghai Kinway Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery Company, customers study pamphlets describing the services on offer while attendants point out various body parts in need of renovation. Kinway's chairman, Zhang Wei, said the week-long holiday was the ideal period for an operation since it allowed enough time to recover from the swelling and bruising which typically followed. 'Women have more time now. There is more time to recover from the operation,' he said. Kinway was fully booked, with 20 to 30 operations a day during the Lunar New Year, while other clinics reported their business had doubled. 'I will be more beautiful when I go back to work after the holiday,' one young woman said. Another woman dressed in pyjamas said: 'Everyone wants to be perfect.' Dr Zhang said the most common operations were creating larger, rounder eyes and higher, more 'western' looking noses. Breast enlargement and liposuction were also popular after holiday indulgences. In its promotional literature, the Kinway clinic promises 'rejuvenation without mess' and 'body contouring liposuction'. Sitting at the front counter, the receptionist said: 'Business is good. We have several operations today.' Traditional beliefs hold that people should look their best at the start of the Lunar New Year. 'There are many major procedures [being used] in the cosmetic surgery operations. This is the difference this year,' Xu Beihua, the head of the Shiguang Plastic Surgery Hospital told a local newspaper. Like the city's shops, some clinics found a sure way to draw more customers over the New Year - they offered discounts of up to 25 per cent, doctors said. Business has also picked up after several so-called 'ugly girl' contests sponsored by the media in major cities offered free cosmetic surgery as a prize. In Shanghai, a competition run by the News Times allowed office worker Zhang Di to undergo 12 procedures on her face.