Star-crossed lovers lucky enough to get on the right train on Metro Line 4 from today shall perhaps have their fates sealed, as Chinese Valentines Day is celebrated in Nanjing with a’n invitation for lovers to make their confessions.
Today is the seventh day of the seventh lunar month in the Chinese lunar calendar, known as the Double Seventh Festival, the Qixi Festival, the Qiqiao Festival, or for those a little more contemporary, Chinese Valentines Day.
Among the more unusual activities being undertaken this year, one of the trains operating on Metro Line 4 has been specially decorated with the themes of “Chinese Valentines’ Day Confession” and “100 Reasons to Fall in Love with Nanjing”.
The promotion is the brainchild of the Hangzhou Bus Media Group (杭州巴士传媒集团) that became the advertising agency for Metro Lines 4, S3, S7, and S9 at the start of this year. Together with local media outlet, the Yangtze Evening News, the two cooperated to design the train and implement the love-themed Valentines’ Day activity.
In addition to its stops at many Nanjing scenic spots, such as Jiming Temple and Jiuhua Shan, Metro Line 4 was chosen as the ideal candidate for reaching young lovers as it also connects with Nanjing University of the Arts, Southeast University and Nanjing University.
As to those confessions, promoters are hoping to receive not tales of unrequited desire, but more those expressing the inseparable emotions between Nanjing and her citizens in the language of love.
A selection of the submitted confessions decorate the carriage interiors. Among the more creative and bizarre, “I love the mists and rains of the six dynasties, but I love you even more”, and, “Every Nanjing person has a family in his heart; the duck downstairs from my house”.
With its purple seats and a charming pink-purple interior, it is also hoped that the dream-decorated train, which runs for the next month, can help turn the boring commute into a warm and interesting experience.
Adorning the carriage walls are also cartoon characters of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl on which the Qixia Festival is based; they appear under Purple Mountain and beside Xuanwu Lake to depict moments of life and love in the city.
The story behind the Qixi Festival is in some ways a Chinese Romeo and Juliet. Like the latter, the Cowherd and Weaver Girl’s love was forbidden and they too were banished, in their case to opposite sides of the river. On the Double Seventh Festival, a flock of magpies would together form a bridge to allow the lovers to be reunited, but for this day only.
