Grave concerns in conservation area

IN A NATIONAL WATER SOURCE conservation area in Fuzhou, Fujian province, more than 100 graves appear like gray rashes on the lush green mountains. China Daily reporter Li Yang comments:

Many of the grave plots cover an area of more than 100 square meters each. In the aerial photos of the mountains provided by the Xinhua News Agency, scenes of devastation are everywhere. All of the tombs are empty. Most of the people, who sponsored the projects, are middle aged and in good health. They have laid out way stations to prepare for their final journeys in this life, which for most will not come until decades later.

According to the local funeral custom, which is in itself a kind of superstition, an elaborate funeral and a luxurious grave can guarantee a comfortable afterlife for the dead. And it is also a tradition to make a coffin or build a grave way ahead of one's death, which it is believed can bring inner peace and longevity to their owners.