Wednesday marked the traditional Qixi Festival, also known as the Chinese Valentine's Day. To celebrate the occasion, the Capital Museum in Beijing extended its business hours and hosted a series of activities with love as the main theme.

Guides led visitors through folklore, jade and porcelain exhibitions, telling stories behind the items on display and their links to love and marriage.

"We have many cultural relics related to Qixi and love and marriage. Through this tour, we can take a look at how our ancestors spent the Qixi Festival and what marriage was like in the past," said Wu Lingling, a volunteer guide at the museum for over 13 years.

The Qixi Festival is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese lunar calendar. It has its origins in a 2,000-year-old love story between a weaver girl and a cowherd boy.

"As a cultural platform, we hope the audiences can feel the rich traditional culture of China at our museum. This year is the first time we've stayed open late for Qixi. We've especially looked for exhibits related to the festival to give the audiences a themed visit experience," said Yang Dandan, spokesperson for the museum.

One big hit with visitors was a sand painting activity depicting one of the objects in the museum's collection — a jade box with yuanyang birds, or mandarin ducks, which symbolize love in traditional Chinese culture.

"We are very happy to attend this event and learn more about the traditions of the Qixi festival. We've traveled to many countries, and the more places we visit, the more interested we are in our own culture. Because these are our roots. So we very much enjoy these kinds of activities at museums," said one visitor. 

A traditional opera "Tianxianpei" was also staged in the museum, telling a love story between a goddess and a human, and capping off an evening of romantic content and culture.