This Day, That Year

Item from April 7, 1997, in China Daily: An elderly man wipes dust off the tombstone of a relative in Babaoshan, western Beijing on Saturday during the Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, when Chinese people pay their respects to their dead.

Tomb Sweeping Day traditionally sees families cleaning tombs and graves and leaving offerings for the deceased.

But for people far from home, the internet provides a way to pay their respects.

By just a few mouse clicks, visitors to certain websites can deliver condolence letters, light candles and even burn incense and paper offerings to the virtual tombs of the dead.

Apart from this high-tech approach, an increasing number of families are adopting more ecological ways of burial, including scattering the ashes out at sea and burying them under trees.

From 2009 to 2016, 10,689 people in Beijing had the ashes of their deceased relatives spread on the ocean, according to the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau. Sea burial was initiated in the 1990s, but relatively few people are willing to let go of the remains of their deceased.

Besides green burials, some innovative companies provide services to turn ashes into diamonds.

In March last year, the Shanghai Funeral and Interment Service Center established a studio to provide such a service. So far, more than 200 families have had the ashes of their deceased turned into diamonds.