UK Monarch's 90th birthday marked by nationwide celebrations

Britain's Queen Elizabeth attends a service at St Paul's Cathedral in London in this March 7, 2012 file photo. Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on April 21, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

Indeed many people are fascinated by the Queen's longevity as the UK celebrates the 90th birthday of its longest-serving monarch, for more than six decades, overtaking her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria.

She has seen 12 prime ministers serve her, from Britain's great wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill through to the present incumbent, David Cameron.

"I think the interesting thing about the royal family and in particular about the queen is primarily longevity, a prime Chinese value," said Martin Palmer, 62, Prince Philip's religious advisor on environment, who met the Queen every two or three years since 1995. "She has been ruling longer than I have been alive. And I think that that sense of longevity, that sense of stability is enormously important."

Palmer said she has a tremendous sense of duty, which in the case of the Queen is very much founded upon filial duty – a great Confucius virtue. "She adored her father. He was her hero. And when he died so suddenly so young, she made a promise to the British and to the world in general that she would be the servant of the people," Palmer said. "So I think that sense of family obligation, family loyalty is hugely important. It is something that we have in our Western, Christian tradition of course, and that reflects a shared value with traditional Chinese values. "

Queen Elizabeth II visits the Temple of Heaven in Beijing during her state visit to China, in October 1986. [Photo/CFP]

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh have both shown enormous interests in Chinese religion, especially Taoism, according to Palmer, who has worked with the Taoists of China over the 20 years. "I remember taking a group of Chinese for a meeting with the Queen and she was just very intrigued with how these different traditions: Taoism, less so Buddhism, and Confucianism, how did they work side by side? How is it that China has never had a religious war? "

Palmer also mentioned that once he took Master Zhang Jiyu, who is the 65th direct ascendant of Zhang Daoling, a well-known Taoist figure in Eastern Han Dynasty, to meet the Queen and Prince Philip. She was fascinated that there was someone who could trace their family back further to the 2nd Century AD, further than she could trace her family back, which is to 700 AD. "So that sense of lineage, that sense of knowing where your family has come from and what they did, good, bad and indifferent, is also an interesting point," Palmer said.