Flowers, mainly roses, serve as tokens of love

Sales of flowers, especially red roses, increase rapidly near Qixi Festival as couples celebrate what's otherwise known as Chinese Valentine's Day.

Zhang Li, general manager of Kunming International Flora Auction Trading Center, said that more than 70 million fresh flowers were sold during the 15 days before the festival. Of those, 93 percent were roses.

"The daily trade volume of fresh flowers reached more than 6 million in the week before the festival," said Zhang. "A record high of 7 million flowers were sold on both Aug 24 and 25, which surpassed the sales on this year's Valentine's Day."