A festival featuring China's centuries-old folklore story, The Butterfly Lovers, will be held in Ningbo, a port city in east China's Zhejiang Province, from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7 this year.

During the festival, six major activities will be staged, including a signing ceremony to mark establishment of friendly relations between Ningbo and Verona of Italy, the venue where the romance between Romeo and Juliet took place, a symposium on the Butterfly Lovers, a concert, plus a grand ceremony devoted to 56 couples from China and Verona who will tie the knots at the ceremony, said its organizers.

The festival will be jointly held by Yinzhou District Government of Ningbo City and Ningbo City Bureau of Tourism.

The Butterfly Lovers are the most popular love story in China. It tells the legend of two 4th century Chinese lovers who could not get married in their lifetime due to different family status and turned into a butterfly couple after their death. The story was also called "China's Romeo and Juliet".

Ningbo is the place where archaeologists claimed to have excavated a 1,600-year-old tomb believed to belong to the male protagonist in the Butterfly Lovers story.

For centuries, the story has been adapted into traditional operas, movies and TV plays. A modern violin concerto adapted from the story has now become a music classic repeatedly played by world-class masters.

China has been busy preparing for listing the Butterfly Lovers as non-material world heritage, with a formal application expected to be submitted to UNESCO in 2006.

(Xinhua News Agenfcy July 28, 2005)