by Xinhua writer Zhou Yan
BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Pictures of young
couples in Mao suits, holding the little red book with quotations from the
paramount leader and carefully keeping each other at arm's length, were the
stereotypical images of China as a land without romance.
Thirty years later, the stereotype is no more. Young
Chinese spend lavishly on roses, chocolates and candlelight dinners with their
sweethearts.
A week into the Year of the Rat, the imported holiday
of Valentine's Day has again spurred discounts at department stores and helped
hotels, restaurants and flower markets to prosper.
 |
|
Staff members in a flower market are
busy preparing a heart-shaped flower bouquet comprising 999 roses in
Zhengzhou of central China's Henan Province on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008.
The rose bouquet was ordered by a young man for his girlfriend on
Valentine's Day. (Source: cncphoto)
Photo Gallery>>> |
"Buy a paper, get a rose," a popular Beijing
metropolitan newspaper offered at every newsstand on Thursday morning.
In the booming eastern city of Wenzhou, young couples
rushing to get married on this special day led a downtown registry office to
open 30 minutes early on Thursday morning -- and to stop accepting divorce
applications for the day.
Even old couples want to try the Western holiday: 60
years into their marriage, a couple in Xi'an in northwestern Shaanxi Province
decided they, too, wanted to celebrate Valentine's Day.
The news was published on a local newspaper on Tuesday and by 6p.m. on Wednesday, about 1,500 people had put up Internet postings, 90 percent of which voiced support.
[1] [2] [3] [4]
