While most Chinese people busily prepare to return home for Lunar New Year, 25-year-old Wang Zhigang mopes despondently in his flower shop with a bad case of the blues.

Wang runs a small flower outlet near the China Agricultural University in Beijing.

As Valentine's Day draws near, the flower shop owner's spirits are down around his bootlaces. And his problem is not a broken heart.

"Usually Valentine's Day is the busiest time of the year, but this year Spring Festival is ruining it," said Wang.

According to this year's Chinese lunar calendar, Spring Festival falls on Feb. 18, just 4 days after Valentine's Day.

The concentration of the dates has had a huge impact on the flower business.

"I will be lucky if I can sell half as many flowers this year as I did in 2006," Wang Zhigang sighed.

"A lot of my customers are university students who usually come back to campus for Valentine's Day after their Spring Festival family reunion. But this year is different. Valentine's Day is coming first, when most of the students will have already gone home to avoid the 'rush period' just before the Spring Festival," Wang said.

"At least half of my old customers have already left Beijing, only a few people have so far come to order flowers," said Wang, trimming a bouquet of red roses.

This year is the first time since 2000 that Valentine's Day has come earlier than Spring Festival

Wang is not the only one worried about business.

Stall owners in Beijing's two main flower markets, Laitai Flower Market and Zhongshu Grand Forest Flower Market, told Xinhua that they are pessimistic about Valentine's Day sales.

More than 20 flower shops said they had had to pay much more for flowers this year but sales prospects were distinctly less rosy.

"People are grabbing planes to get home for Spring Festival by plane, so there is a lot of air traffic, and as a result the cost of air freight has risen," said Yu Huiliang, one of the flower shop owners. "The cost of roses has doubled, it's the most expensive they've been in the past 5 years."

"We are going to loss 30 percent of our custom, because many workers and students have returned to their hometown for Spring Festival," said Yang Xue, another shop owner.

Disillusionment with lovers' day is not limited to the flower markets. Many hotels and restaurants have given up on Valentine's Day this year and swung their attention to New Year's Eve dinner.

The Shangri-La Hotel, one of Beijing's most prestigious venues, is promoting a set meal for lovers at a cost of 1188 RMB(150 USD) this Valentine's Day, whereas last year it promoted a luxurious set meal at 99,999 RMB(13,000 USD), according to Beijing Evening News.

"Valentine's Day is too close to New Year. We simply don't have time to think much about it, because New Year's Eve dinner is a much more lucrative potential market," a sales manager told Beijing Business Today.

"It's bad luck for us about the dates, said Wang Zhigang, but I hope that true lovers everywhere will have a wonderful day."