Books tell the legend of Liu and Ruan. [Photo/sjk.tzwhg.net]

The Legend of Liu and Ruan, a fairy-tale love story, tells about how Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao meet two fairies while picking medicinal herbs and married them later. The legend was mainly spread in Tiantai county, Zhejiang province, and its surrounding cities and counties such as Shengzhou, Xinchang and Ninghai. The legend of Liu and Ruan has been carried by word of mouth since the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), and was later circulating more widely after some literary people wrote the story down. The legend then extended into folk drama, ballad, crafts and fine arts, and has become extensively influential. In December 2014, the Legend of Liu and Ruan was included in China's fourth representative list of intangible cultural heritage.