Love is in the air

In Taipei there's something for people of all tastes and budgets to celebrate Lovers' Day. PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES

Wether chivalrous romance, a hotel room, old-fashioned sex toys or just a few hours with your sweetheart that you're looking for, the options are as plentiful as they are diverse this Lovers' Day weekend.

The holiday this Sunday, rooted in Chinese folklore and based on the lunar calendar, falls each year on the seventh day of the seventh month.

According to the Chinese folk story, after angering the gods by neglecting her work as a weaver of the sky, a young beauty was separated from her husband by a silver river. The gods were ultimately moved by the couple's unrelenting desire to reunite and finally allowed them to cross the river one day of the year.

But that's just folklore.

"As far as I'm concerned, Valentine's Day is just a reason for girls to want guys to give them gifts,"said Yeh Tze-Yu, of Hsinchu.

Indeed, everything from Pacific-Sogo Department Store, which has sales on most goods until Aug. 22, to buying an MRT Easy Card and having you and your Valentine's picture stuck on it, to your choice of restaurants and "love hotels," are all fair game.

But if you're not quite ready to part with over NT$50,000 for a night of bliss in a souped-up hotel room, there are still other possibilities. The first of them is set to take place the evening before Valentine's Day.

CKS Memorial Hall plans to host a free piano concert beginning at 7:30pm tomorrow. Billed as Piano Seven -- seven pianos with seven players -- the ensemble from Europe is guaranteed to set the mood for Sunday.

On the holiday itself, lovers will also have a chance to step back in time to a place where love was as simple as pulling your classmate's pigtails and drawing hearts on the cover of a loose-leaf binder.

Beginning 7:07pm sharp, romantics can gather inside Fushun Park (撫順公園) and, while holding hands, profess their undying love for one another.

The park ceremony will be followed by a stroll along Zhongshan North Road, during which participants can sample some free coffee and then watch a fireworks display.

And there's the love-hotel option.

The We-Go Hotel (薇閣精品旅館) on Linsen North Road has taken modern romance and mixed in antique decorations and sex toys, with old love tunes as background music, all at a cost of NT$52,013 for one night.

Although all of the A-Ma (granny) theme rooms are booked, the hotel still has rooms for NT$9,970 that offer a place to hang your hat for three hours, nice wine and fine food.