Couples celebrate online

Following a difficult Spring Festival, Valentine's Day saw couples separated by the coronavirus epidemic organizing "cloud relationships".

In response to citywide lockdowns, many "long-distance couples" came up with innovative ways of celebrating the special day.

A report released by Meituan, an on-demand service platform, showed that the most popular Valentine's Day gifts included protective gear, such as face masks, goggles and swipe pads containing medicinal alcohol.

Foods such as broccoli and cauliflower, whose names include the Chinese character for "flower", and snack packages also featured on the best-seller lists, with sales exceeding those of flowers and chocolates, the traditional Valentine's Day musthave gifts.

Moreover, this year, the notes and cards that accompanied the gifts contained phrases such as "Stay healthy" and "Missing you", rather than simply "I love you."

The report noted a surge in orders from different areas of the same cities, illustrating the impact of travel bans and lockdowns. To reduce the risk of virus transmission, couriers acted as messengers for separated stay-at-home couples.

Internet-based activities replaced traditional dates in restaurants and cinemas. The most popular alternatives saw couples sharing online movies and games, dinners eaten on video calls, and singing sessions on popular karaoke apps.

Zhao Shen, a news editor in Beijing who has been working from home recently, invited his girlfriend, who lives in a different part of the capital, to watch a movie online to celebrate Valentine's Day.

"We started a video chat on our smartphones and played the same movie on our home computers at an appointed time," Zhao said.

Costume designer Shi Shuangyu and her husband played Farm Together, an online game, on the big day.

"We posed for a couple of photos in a section of the virtual farm we manage together, and I sketched a portrait of my husband as a gift," Shi said, adding that she posted a photo of their Valentine's dinner－McDonald's set meals－on social media.

Inevitably, though, many related businesses, such as flower shops, hotels and movie theaters, saw trade fall as a result of the outbreak.

On Feb 10, Gao Rongmei, manager of the Kunming International Flora Auction Trading Center in Yunnan province, told people.cn that stores in the province face huge losses because 2 billion bunches of flowers worth 2.5 billion yuan ($35.7 million) had failed to sell.