Zhang Qian

    zhqcindy@163.com

    APPROXIMATELY half a million Shenzhen residents visited their ancestors’ graves to sweep away dirt and maintain the gravestones during the three-day Qingming Festival holiday, a traditional Chinese festival for mourning the dead.

    About 491,935 people and 98,224 vehicles entered cemeteries during the three days, according to the civil affair bureau yesterday.

    Unlike previous years, many residents adopted more eco-friendly ways to honor their loved ones this year. Flowers and fruit are becoming more common along with the traditional offerings of meat and alcohol.

    In Jitian Cemetery in Longgang District, some mourners expressed their feelings for their lost loved ones on a piece of paper placed in a letter box prepared by the cemetery management. Staff said the letters would be burned later. Chinese tradition holds that burning paper-made items is a way to connect with the deceased.

    “Though fewer people choose to burn paper-made items for their deceased relatives this year than previous years, there are still a good many people doing so,” said a man surnamed Zhang, the spokesperson for the cemetery.

    The paper images to be burned include almost every daily supply that people can think of, including iPhones, cars, clothes and even paper houses.

    To prevent fires, the cemetery set up an area for people to burn their offerings. All graveyards in the city offered iron buckets for burning as well as fire extinguishers.

    Firecrackers are forbidden in all cemeteries, but tradition dies hard in Shenzhen.

    “We can only warn the residents who setoff firecrackers in the cemeteries, but people ignore us most of the time,” said Zhang.

    While most people visited the cemeteries in person, some paid their respects at home via online platform such as the Endless Love website, which offers virtual memorial ceremonies for citizens who cannot visit the cemeteries themselves. People can upload pictures of the deceased with their life stories as well as articles and videos.

    Some residents left the city to honor their deceased relatives, intensifying traffic levels over the weekend. A local resident, also surnamed Zhang, said he spent six hours on the highway driving back to his hometown in Meizhou in Guangdong. Normally it is a three-hour drive, he said.