The online memorial allows Chinese to show their respect for China's national martyrs through the Website, www.China5000.org.cn, from yesterday to Friday.

Visitors to the Website could make comments and tributes, said the Chinese Communist Youth League, one of the Website's initiators.

The Website had received 135 million visits from Internet users in the past five years, sources with the CCYL said.

Qingming Festival, or tomb-sweeping day, is the time for Chinese people to honor their ancestors and it falls on Thursday this year.

Traditionally, tens of millions of Chinese visit the tombs of their forbears, and students gather to honor martyrs around Qingming Festival.

In recent years, the government has advised people to avoid lighting funerary money at grave sites and to pay their respects via the Internet as more online funerary sites have opened.

The online memorial, jointly initiated by the youth league and the office on building an advanced culture and ideology of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is co-organized by more than 1,000 Websites including Xinhuanet.com, People.com.cn and Sina.com.cn.