Increasing numbers of young people are aware of Qixi Festival, dubbed Chinese Valentine's Day, thanks to extensive media coverage.

But, in Beijing at least, chocolates, flowers, roses and cards all seem to be on hold this year, as few young lovers appear to be in any mood to celebrate the occasion.

The origins of the festival lie in the legend of two star-crossed lovers a cowherd and a fairy who reunite across the Milky Way once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, which falls today.

Despite some small promotions at big shopping centres in large cities, the festival is clearly a distant second to the Western Valentine's Day on February 14 when it comes to enthusiasm.

A Beijing-based florist surnamed Zhou said the sales of roses are flat and she sees no upturn in store today.

"But on February 14, sales can be more than double at triple the prices," she said.

Zhang Xiaoyan, a Beijing resident in her 20s, said she knows about the festival but has never celebrated it as a day for lovers.

"There is hardly any trace of a romantic atmosphere.

"Many people can't remember the exact day because it is on the lunar calendar," she said.

Her boyfriend Cui Jiapeng is one of them. Even though he was not initially aware he was walking with his girlfriend on the eve of the festival, he urged that it be promoted better.

"It is part of our culture, which should not be forgotten," he said.

In Guangzhou, there are no visible signs of any commercial promotion in the Grand View Mall, the biggest shopping centre in the city.

"We are not making any extra effort," said a worker at a hair-products shop.

In Shanghai, however, romance is in the air at least at the Pacific Shopping Mall, which is decked out with heart-shaped red balloons emblazoned with "Happy Valentine's Day."

Ye Chunsheng, director of the Folklore Research Centre at Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University, said although the seventh day of the seventh lunar month and the Lantern Festival in the first lunar month are called Chinese days for people in love, it was not always so. "Young people came up with the connotation after the country opened up to the outside world," Ye said.

(China Daily August 11, 2005)