While their parents might feel embarrassed holding hands, Shanghai's younger generations are expressing their love in some extraordinary ways.

On a recent Sunday, Xu Jung discovered a heart-shaped bouquet of 999 roses on a Ferris wheel at the carnival grounds in Pudong. The bouquet was a surprise from her boyfriend, who had arranged the stunt ahead of time with the ride's operator. Nine-hundred and ninety-nine sounds similar to "forever" in Chinese.

Xu was touched by the gift, as were onlookers who surrounded the couple as they got off the ride.

"I wanted to show my love to her by giving her a surprise," said the boyfriend, adding that he believes romantic surprises are the best way to express himself.

He is not alone. Not afraid of public attention, young people are seeking various ways to express their love.

Several months ago, a young man donned scuba gear and jumped into the tank at Shanghai Ocean Aquarium with a sign reading "Will you marry me?"

When his girlfriend saw the sign with her name on it, she broke into tears of joy.

Some romantics less willing to get wet are expressing their affections on a huge billboard towering over the city's busiest shopping street.

"You can spot the message 'I love you' almost every week on the screen," said an official with the Shanghai Effect Advertising Co Ltd, which sells advertising time on the electronic billboard at Century Plaza along the bustling Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall. The company charges 248 yuan (US$30) for a 3-minute ad.

Each year around Valentine's Day, the number of love message jumps to nearly 10 a day. "Most of them were booked by young people aged between 20 and 30," the official said.

"Young people nowadays are brave enough and quite good at adopting creative ways to express their love," said Yu Jian, a local marriage expert, adding that such an expression of love would have been unacceptable in China a generation ago.

But the influx of Western ideas has changed the way people think and act.

"With the development of society and modern tech-nology, young people are more open to these new methods of expressing their love," said sociologist Hu Shoujun. While many young-sters enjoy watching others send romantic messages in public, not all would be thrilled to receive them.

"I will be quite happy to be an onlooker, but it would be embarrassing to let my love be exposed to so many strangers," said Jin Mengfei.

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