Tonight, the Milky Way shines its brightest for Qixi Festival, or Chinese Valentine’s Day. It is the night when the Cowherd and Weaver Girl reunite across the stars — a perfect occasion to revisit the stories that define Chinese romance. From Lady Meng Jiang’s tears bringing down the Great Wall to Bai Suzhen flooding Jinshan Temple to save her husband; from Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai transforming into butterflies to stay together forever; to Dong Yong marrying a celestial princess beneath the locust tree — these five legends span millennia, yet they resonate with the same eternal truth: love transcends status, defies life and death, and dissolves the boundaries between heaven and earth. This Qixi, as you gaze at the stars, see not just a myth, but the enduring spirit of a civilization.

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