Valentine lovers kiss their cash goodbye

HONG KONG – Lovers across Asia will be celebrating Valentine’s Day this year with fancy meals, sumptuous chocolates, ritzy hotel suites – and above all plenty of cash.

Money may not buy you love but it sure helps, if the prices of some of this year’s Valentine specials are any indication. Beijing’s Shangri-La Hotel is offering a 99 999 yuan (US$12 425) package that includes 99 red roses, limousine pick-up, a presidential suite with spa facilities, French cuisine and a one-carat diamond ring.As the Beijing Evening News put it: “The target customers are those young millionaires.”Many prices in China have been set to feature the numbers eight and nine, which signify prosperity and longevity in Chinese belief.The Shangri-La Hotel in Shanghai’s towering Pudong district is offering a Valentine special costing 88 888 yuan, while the Portman Ritz-Carlton has a 188,888 yuan package.In Zhengzhou city, a newspaper reported that one restaurant is offering a 99,999 yuan “Emperor-style” dinner – complete with Chinese, French, Japanese and Korean food.And a personal nutritionist.And a live band.”How much money do we earn in a year?” one couple told the paper.”We can’t stop eating for two years to save up for it.”Even without the 8s and 9s, the numbers are adding up in Tokyo, where Takashimaya department store is selling a 500 million yen (US$4,2 million) chocolate cake decorated with 107 diamonds.The confection comes in the shape of a musical score, showing the notes for Mozart’s “Turkish March” to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.If you’re not ready to go that far, Matsuzakaya in the upscale central Tokyo area of Ginza invited chocolatier Michel Chaudun from Paris on the eve of the big day.”As the chocolatier himself was at the shop and as I love black chocolates, I decided to buy them for my husband and my father.Of course I’ll eat most of them,” said housewife Naomi Hayashi.”Our customers are getting very knowledgeable about chocolates and they tend to enjoy them for themselves.So we prepared good ones that can amuse our female customers,” said a company spokeswoman.In a Japanese twist, men are expected to reciprocate by buying women chocolate a month later on “White Day,” in what cynics see as a chance for the candy business to cash in on two holidays.Chocolates also take pride of place in South Korea, where department stores, gift shops and flower shops are filling their aisles with sweet treats in anticipation of a buying surge by young lovers.Valentine’s Day has also been embraced in India, but some right-wing political groups have other ideas.”It is crass commercialisation for (greeting) card companies who do business worth two billion rupees (US$45 million) on this day,” Jai Bhagwan Goel of the hardline Shiv Sena party told AFP.”We are going to oppose it in a big way.Our protest is against the culture of nudity and obscenity.We know of cases where young men use the festival as an excuse to misbehave with women.”In Australia, the national postal service has released a rose-scented stamp to coax people into returning to that lost art form, the love letter.”Sending an SMS or e-mail doesn’t have the same impact as a card you choose personally and accompany with a hand-written message of love,” Australia Post spokesman Noel Leahy said.”The value of a heartfelt love letter and scented stamp is priceless.”And if love doesn’t work out, a support group in Shanghai would mark Valentine’s Day with the launch of the Divorce Club.Around 135 men and women have already joined, and will be celebrating the end of their marriages.Despite the expensive trappings of romance, China’s divorce rate in 2004 was up more than 21 per cent.-Nampa-AFPBeijing’s Shangri-La Hotel is offering a 99 999 yuan (US$12 425) package that includes 99 red roses, limousine pick-up, a presidential suite with spa facilities, French cuisine and a one-carat diamond ring.As the Beijing Evening News put it: “The target customers are those young millionaires.”Many prices in China have been set to feature the numbers eight and nine, which signify prosperity and longevity in Chinese belief.The Shangri-La Hotel in Shanghai’s towering Pudong district is offering a Valentine special costing 88 888 yuan, while the Portman Ritz-Carlton has a 188,888 yuan package.In Zhengzhou city, a newspaper reported that one restaurant is offering a 99,999 yuan “Emperor-style” dinner – complete with Chinese, French, Japanese and Korean food.And a personal nutritionist.And a live band.”How much money do we earn in a year?” one couple told the paper.”We can’t stop eating for two years to save up for it.”Even without the 8s and 9s, the numbers are adding up in Tokyo, where Takashimaya department store is selling a 500 million yen (US$4,2 million) chocolate cake decorated with 107 diamonds.The confection comes in the shape of a musical score, showing the notes for Mozart’s “Turkish March” to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.If you’re not ready to go that far, Matsuzakaya in the upscale central Tokyo area of Ginza invited chocolatier Michel Chaudun from Paris on the eve of the big day.”As the chocolatier himself was at the shop and as I love black chocolates, I decided to buy them for my husband and my father.Of course I’ll eat most of them,” said housewife Naomi Hayashi.”Our customers are getting very knowledgeable about chocolates and they tend to enjoy them for themselves.So we prepared good ones that can amuse our female customers,” said a company spokeswoman.In a Japanese twist, men are expected to reciprocate by buying women chocolate a month later on “White Day,” in what cynics see as a chance for the candy business to cash in on two holidays.Chocolates also take pride of place in South Korea, where department stores, gift shops and flower shops are filling their aisles with sweet treats in anticipation of a buying surge by young lovers.Valentine’s Day has also been embraced in India, but some right-wing political groups have other ideas.”It is crass commercialisation for (greeting) card companies who do business worth two billion rupees (US$45 million) on this day,” Jai Bhagwan Goel of the hardline Shiv Sena party told AFP.”We are going to oppose it in a big way.Our protest is against the culture of nudity and obscenity.We know of cases where young men use the festival as an excuse to misbehave with women.”In Australia, the national postal service has released a rose-scented stamp to coax people into returning to that lost art form, the love letter.”Sending an SMS or e-mail doesn’t have the same impact as a card you choose personally and accompany with a hand-written message of love,” Australia Post spokesman Noel Leahy said.”The value of a heartfelt love letter and scented stamp is priceless.”And if love doesn’t work out, a support group in Shanghai would mark Valentine’s Day with the launch of the Divorce Club.Around 135 men and women have already joined, and will be celebrating the end of their marriages.Despite the expensive trappings of romance, China’s divorce rate in 2004 was up more than 21 per cent.-Nampa-AFP