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KUNMING, Aug. 18-- For every 10 flowers sold on Friday, Chinese Valentine's Day, at least seven are from Dounan, a suburb in the provincial capital Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan Province, with prices determined by a live auction. From three p.m. until late at night, the 900-seat trading hall is filled as the auction concerning cut flowers begins in the Kunming International Flora Auction Trading Center (KIFA) in Dounan, one of the largest of its kind in Asia. Florist Yuan Fuwang keeps a close eye on the trading screen where deals are made between flickers of numbers. Dealers either sigh or shout over the prices, waiting anxiously to sell their carefully planted beauties. "I couldn't be more concentrated. A deal is made every four seconds," Yuan said. For Chinese Valentine's Day, about 48 million flowers worth more than 47 million yuan (6.8 million U.S. dollars) are sold through KIFA, with roses accounting for more than 95 percent of the total. Quality testing is the first step that the flowers have to go through, which the center classifies into five grades. Buyers then check the flowers in person to select and record the ones they want. Prices go up with the grades. "The annual average price of a Grade A flower was 1.43 yuan last year, about three times higher than that of a Grade D," said Zhang Li, general manager of KIFA. When the auction starts, auctioneers usually give a rather high starting price and then gradually lower it. | 
