All eyes were on a pair of old men in their 80s wearing identical traditional blue silk coats and black broad-rimmed felt hats as they arrived at Beijing's Honglingjin Park on Sunday.

Accompanied by their children and grandchildren, twin brothers Chen Sicheng and Chen Siqian joined a crowd of around 600 pairs of twins for the second China Twins Festival.

The event attracted siblings from across the country, with the youngest pair, a mere two months old, arriving in a double pushchair.

"One newspaper said the oldest known pair of twins were 86 years of age, so we have come to challenge this," said Chen Sicheng, the elder of the duo, who both live in Beijing. "Today we are exactly 88 years and 224 days old."

The festival offered twins an opportunity also to perform and share their experiences, with many believing that there have forged closer relationships than ordinary brothers and sisters.

"We two are just like one," said Hu Beining, the twin sister of Hu Beilin, both 28. They attended the same kindergarten, middle school and college, and even shared the same employer for three years.

"We call each other every day," said Hu Beining. "Our longest separation was for one month."

Zhang Bo, the 26-year-old twin brother of Zhang Wen, said: "Twins have some special thoughts and ideas that others can't fully understand."

The Zhangs, members of the Hui ethnic group, hosted the festival's opening ceremony. They both study at Beijing Film Academy.

"Sometimes we just communicate through whispers and eye contact," Zhang Bo said.

Xiao Jin and Xiao Wei, 48, live in different cities, Beijing and Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province. They can attest to the fact that sometimes pets even fail to distinguish between their twin owners.

Once, when Xiao Jin took a month-long business trip away from her home in Beijing, her sister, Xiao Wei, took care of Xiao Jin's Persian cat. To her amazement, the cat happily greeted Xiao Wei in the usual way it greets its owner, Xiao Wei recalled.

But the Chen brothers have shared far more than most of the twins.

The brothers both fought during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and have taken part in nine major events commemorating the 60th anniversary of victory over Japan.

(China Daily October 4, 2005)