Han Ximin
ximhan@126.com
AROUND 300,000 people visited cemeteries to honor their deceased loved ones in Shenzhen yesterday, the last day of the three-day Qingming Festival holiday, equivalent to the number of the previous days combined.
Shenzhen Funeral Home and Jitian Cemetery alone received 53,562 tomb sweepers. The funeral administration gave out 15,000 free flowers to tomb sweepers, according to Shenzhen’s civil affairs bureau.
Shenzhen Martyrs Cemetery also saw 8,000 people with their families or in groups organized by enterprises, schools, and Army and government agencies to mourn those who devoted their lives to the revolutionary cause.
“During the Qingming Festival holiday in past years, I came with my child to honor the martyrs. This education is necessary for my child to know about the stories of the martyrs and know about the source of our happy life,” said a woman surnamed Zhang, who presented a bunch of flowers at the cemetery.
The number of residents to mourn at the martyrs cemetery during the Qingming Festival holiday has continued to rise in recent years, according to You Weifeng, head of the cemetery administration.
On the last day of the holiday, the city began to see the heavy traffic of returning vehicles at 3 p.m. on Shenshan, Yuegan, Shenhai and Jingzhu expressways. The Humen section of Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway, the Qinghu-South China City section of Jihe Expressway, the Shenzhen section of Huiyan Expressway and the Luotian section of Longda Expressway were congested between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. yesterday.
Shenzhen’s border checkpoints handled around 2.1 million travelers between Sunday and yesterday, sources from the entry and exit inspection station said. About 700,000 travelers crossed the border yesterday alone.
The city’s air, rail and long-distance buses handled 2.43 million travelers, slightly higher than they handled during the same period last year.
During the holiday, the city received 4,250 traffic accident reports and 1,045 traffic congestion reports.
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