Cultural activities for Qixi travel on the rise among the young

China's own Valentine's Day, Qixi Festival, falls on Aug 7 — the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. Chinese tourism website Mafengwo announced during the week before Qixi, searches for words related to Qixi increased 37 percent over the same period last year, and the searches for "Valentine's Day" decreased 4 percent.

Mafengwo's survey shows 68 percent of the subjects said they prefer to celebrate Qixi in the city where they live or surrounding areas, 23 percent said they like to take a short domestic trip and only 9 percent said they wanted to have an outbound journey for the celebration. Also, 59 percent chose to celebrate the festival during the weekend before or after Qixi, because the festival falls on a working day.

Feng Rao, head of Mafengwo's travel research center, said young Chinese who travel in the period around Qixi Festival pay more attention to related cultural experiences — for example, eating qiaoguo, a traditional snack made from flour and sesame, made especially for the festival.

As summer is a peak season for travel, destinations across the country hold various cultural activities for tourists to enjoy themselves. For example, at the Summer Palace in Beijing, visitors can learn from craftspeople how to make qiaoguo on their own.

Feng said there are more cultural activities related to Qixi now than in previous years, indicating the tourism industry is catering to the diversified demands of younger travelers.