本周六，浪漫的七夕节悄然而至。相对于镇定的情侣们而言，各个商家不失时机地推出各项促销活动，令人眼花缭乱。如何让传统节日少些商业味儿，多些民族味儿，这是一个需要思考的问题。很多人发出质疑：我想要的爱，能否用情人节礼物换来？

China's Valentine's Day, the Double Seventh Festival is the most romantic festival among China's traditional celebrations. The festival was the day valued most by girls in the past and remains a favorite today, managing to evolve along traditional lines.

On this day, girls once used to pray to the Weaver Maid goddess, asking for great skills in needlecraft as well as satisfactory husbands. But for many Chinese young people, these old traditions have been forgotten over the years.

This year, on the streets of big cities, many stores selling cross-stitch artworks have found more young lovers taking up this traditional habit. Manager Wang Kai runs such a store in Shanghai.

"The embroidery artworks sell really well in my store, and most of the customers are young lovers this year."

But the goddess in heaven doesn't answer the young girls' prayers unless they are able to show their sincerity, often demonstrated with offerings of delicious food. The food which is usually offered at this time is home-made and propitious in nature, just like dumplings, noodles, wontons and deep-fried twisted dough sticks. However, the most famous offering is the Qiaoguo, a kind of cake with a thin fried paste inside. Daoxiangcun, a renowned Chinese traditional bakery chain has introduced the traditional Qiaoguo for years into the Chinese market. A manager surnamed Liu from a chain store based in Shijingshan District of Beijing says more and more customers are recognizing the traditional food compared with years previously.

"Qiaoguo has sold very well in the store this year since we've changed it slightly, adding new flavors like blueberry and lychee. Several years ago, only a small amount of young people were interested in buying Qiaoguo, but now more young people and elderly customers have started to purchase it because of soft and delicious flavors. These kinds of cake can be priced much higher than other more common ones, but the price doesn't deter the customers from buying them".

Gold jewelry has also seen sales increase as it helps to express sentimental wishes, and acts as a good hedge against inflation. Many jewelry stores have promoted their Qixi sales by offering more products suitable for lovers. Manager Li Mei says certain products prove very popular for this occasion.

"Jewelry with traditional Chinese designs is very popular among those customers looking to buy necklaces, bracelets, and eternity rings. Gold jewelry suitable for wearing with traditional Chinese clothing, such as the cheong-sams, is proving extremely popular right now".

This year has also seen traditional bamboo slips become a new favorite among young lovers. Couples can use the bamboo books to express their heart-felt love to one another, engraving words upon the book to give a special message to their loved ones. The price of these traditional romance letters has garnered great attention from customers visiting online stores. The bamboo slips are usually priced at 48 yuan up to 150 yuan each.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.

声明：音视频均来自互联网链接，仅供学习使用。本网站自身不存储、控制、修改被链接的内容。"沪江网"高度重视知识产权保护。当如发现本网站发布的信息包含有侵犯其著作权的链接内容时，请联系我们，我们将依法采取措施移除相关内容或屏蔽相关链接。