With the development of China comes a modernization, perhaps also a westernization of the country and some things, inevitably, fade. The Chinese Valentine's Day, known as the Qixi festival, is fast becoming a long-lost tradition, while the western version of Valentine's Day on February 14th has been picking up steam, even among locals.

At many malls around Beijing, the days leading up to the Qixi festival are nothing special - no bustling crowds and no special sales that usually take shops by storm before more commercialized celebrations such as Christmas, New Years or the February 14th Valentines Day.

One of the few places where the spirit of Qixi lives on is at the downtown flower market. For these florists, it's still a highly anticipated time of the year.

[interview, The Qixi festival falls on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese calendar, which usually coincides with a date the Chinese consider "lucky", so this brings an influx of weddings and other ceremonies]

But even these stores have noticed that the popularity of the Qixi festival is being replaced with a growing preference for the western Valentine's Day.

[interview, definitely Valentine's day. I think people nowadays are all more westernized - even their preference of flower arrangements has changed]

The real girly girls out there who like to make a special day out of almost anything will simply celebrate both with equal passion. Flowers. Candy. Romance. What's not to love?