情人节的上海的“甜爱路”

The name says it all: this is, literally, "Sweet Love Road", a well-known Mecca for Shanghai couples. The street's main attraction is probably Shanghai's best-known mailbox, which couples slip their love letters into.

"Following the path of love, let us enjoy the romantic love stories and sweet dreams in the privacy of Tian'ai Road," reads a heart-shaped sign besides the mailbox.

The local district government set up the mailbox two years ago. Song Bingyu, a Shanghai resident is mailing some love notes.

"The reason why I want to send these postcards from here is because the road's name is Tian'ai Road. It's a very traditional dating road in Shanghai. I think the name sounds very nice and it's also famous. It has a very beautiful meaning."

To make it even more special, letters can be brought to a nearby district government's office where a security guard will provide a special stamp certifying that the message was sent from Sweet Love Street.

For two years, Qu Baochun has been administering love in small doses with this little stamp. Despite how technology-savvy young generations can be, he says that there's a growing nostalgia - where many people are interested in sharing thoughts and feelings in the traditional way.

"Now everyone communicates via the Internet. We have email, so letters aren't so popular anymore. In the old times we just wrote letters. It was a different time. We were even too shy to talk to girls. So we would throw them handwritten notes. After that, the girl would unfold the paper and see the message: 'I like you'".

Most of the people who come to get the stamps are young girls, and not all of them are sending letters to boyfriends. Sometimes, they just want to give a little something to relatives, or to wish friends good luck in the pursuit of love. Li Meiqi is sending a card to a friend.

"Receiving letters makes people feel happy. It's not like a brief text message by phone or by email - those are way too cold. Seeing a handwritten letter will bring warmth to my friends."

Now it's the postman's turn to play Cupid. Jian Fanjun comes three times every day to collect the mail on Tian'ai Road. Usually, he finds postcards full of blessings and lots of "I miss you" messages. He says that the mailbox becomes more popular as Valentine's Day approaches.

"During some special festivals, people will come to send letters from here, more than they usually do. For example, for the Qixi Festival (the Chinese Valentine's Day) or on February 14th. On those dates, there are more letters and more of them come with the love stamp on them."

The letters in his mail bag are not only the confessions of lovers. He also carries the hopes of many singles trying to find a match in an increasingly competitive dating world.

For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.