A colored pavilion or palanquin and food offerings are placed at altars in front of a door during the Qixi Festival in Shitang town. [Photo/sjk.tzwhg.net]

The Qixi Festival is also called the Children's Festival in Shitang town, Wenling, a county-level town in Taizhou, Zhejiang province. More than 300 years ago, fishermen from Fujian province migrated to Shitang and Ruoshan towns in Wenling, bringing with them the popular customs of the Qixi Festival in southern Fujian province, most of which involved worshiping idols. This gradually developed into and remains a festival of praying for children's healthy growth. In May 2011, the customs of the Qixi Festival in Shitang town were included in China’s third representative list of intangible cultural heritage.