Beijing holds unique festival for twins

BEIJING: China rolled out a red carpet for more than 650 sets of twins, triplets and multiple births from around the world, who gathered here for the Fourth Beijing Twins Culture Festival.

As part of the city's 58th National Day celebrations the look-alikes walked in the Honglingjin Park in eastern Beijing amidst cheers of the scores of spectators.

"I feel just like a star," said 5-year-old girl Wang Yufei, who came here with sister Wang Yutong.

Ten pairs of twins were picked up from them to attend a simulated torch relay, which was ended with the chanting of slogans of next year's Olympics by all twins.

Other activities included performances of singing, dancing, cross talk and martial arts.

"Someone may be scouting for talented people just like us, and we hope we can arouse their attention through our performance on the stage," said Li Xin, a secondary school student, who came here with sisters Li Jing and Li Miao. They had attended the past three festivals in Beijing.

The First Beijing Twins Culture Festival was held on October 2, 2004, which attracted more than 500 pairs of twins, and the event has become an annual event, Xinhua news agency quoted the organisers as saying.

Chinese, who by tradition prefer "double" to "single" and always wish newly weds "double happiness," look on twins and multiple births as signs of good luck. A boy-and-girl pair is called a "dragon and phoenix" pair -- a reference to two traditional Chinese symbols of prosperity.