Cemetery connects lost soldiers with the present

At 70 years old, Liu Guoqin recently made the 1,600-kilometer journey from Wuxi, Jiangsu province, to Shenyang, Liaoning province, alone. Her surviving older siblings were too frail to travel, but Liu felt an obligation she couldn't pass up.

She was heading to the Chinese People's Volunteers martyrs' cemetery in Shenyang, where a single name carved into a 100-meter-long black granite wall drew her in: her eldest brother, Liu Guohua.

"I was born after he left. We never met," Liu Guoqin said, tears welling as she stood before the wall on June 3, accompanied by her childhood friend Hu Yanjuan, also 70. Liu Guoqin's brother was 22 when he died in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53). For decades, Liu searched — visiting government offices in Liaoning, calling old classmates and chasing leads that went nowhere. "My parents' dying wishes were to know where he was. So, I needed to find him," she said.

Three years ago, she did. His name was etched among the 174,407 names carved on the wall, representing the 197,653 fallen of the war. Duplicate names were carved only once, so the number of names is less than the true death toll.

Since then, Liu Guoqin has returned each year. "None of my living elder siblings are fit enough to travel long distances. While I can still walk, I will come," she said.

The seekers

For thousands of families across China, the cemetery in Shenyang — established in 1951 and spanning 210,000 square meters — is the only tangible link to relatives lost in a war seven decades ago.

At its heart rises a 23.5-meter granite monument bearing the inscription "The heroic souls of the martyrs of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea shall live forever" in the calligraphy of Dong Biwu, one of the founders of the Communist Party of China and a famed Marxist.

Behind the monument rest 123 CPV martyrs, including special-class heroes Yang Gensi and Huang Jiguang, and first-class heroes Qiu Shaoyun, Sun Zhanyuan and Yang Liandi.

In front of the cemetery is a memorial square completed on Oct 29, 2014. Its unclosed circular form symbolizes return and reunion.

An underground crypt beneath the square holds the remains of CPV martyrs repatriated annually from the Republic of Korea. Over 1,000 soldiers have been brought home through these handovers.

Since 2014, following a handover agreement between China and the ROK, 13 consecutive repatriations have brought a total of 1,023 soldiers home. On the day of the 13th repatriation in April this year, a solemn burial ceremony was held at the square.

For many families, the wall of names is the only place they can finally pay tribute to their loved ones.

Xia Fang, deputy head of the cemetery's social education department, has spent 20 years watching visitors walk the length of the wall, fingers trailing across the carved characters.

One story stays with her. In 2025, a man called Fang Hanbing had traveled over 1,700 km from Macheng, Hubei province, to find his father's name on the wall. He brought a pouch of soil from his hometown and a stack of fire-baked flatbread — his father's favorite. When his fingers traced the characters "Fang Jinyao", a word he had never been able to speak escaped his lips: "Dad". He had been three months old when his father left for the front.

"I was standing right there," Xia recalled. "After 70 years, when he finally called out 'Dad', the emotion just broke through."

Another staff member, Wang Chunjie, remembers a woman named Wang Xianxia, who spent 58 years searching for her father. When she finally arrived at his grave, she knelt and bowed 58 times — one for each year of searching.

"She said, 'I've been looking for you my whole life'," Wang Chunjie recalled. "She was in her sixties by then."

The keepers

Because so many martyrs died too young to have direct descendants, the responsibility of preserving their memory often falls on distant relatives — and the cemetery staff who guard their legacy.

"When I started working here, heroes like Huang Jiguang seemed like figures from distant textbooks," Wang Chunjie said. "Then I realized Huang was only 21 when he died — younger than I was when I started."

Xia said those who come are often nieces and nephews, their parents long gone but the obligation to remember undiminished. "They don't say much when they reach the wall," she said. "There's just quiet crying, tears streaming down."

Every year, on the eve of the war's anniversary on Oct 24, a Shenyang resident places five apples on every grave — a quiet homage to the legendary Battle of Shangganling (the Battle of Triangle Hill), where a single apple was passed among starving soldiers, Xia said.

Ahead of the Chinese New Year in 2025, the cemetery staff boiled nearly 1,000 dumplings and placed them at the graves. "We wanted the martyrs to taste the sweetness of today," Xia said. "I was once told by one of the veterans that at the front line, they once made dumplings under fire — the enemy bombed them, and all that was left was soup."

Inside the cemetery's museum vault, more than 10,000 artifacts lie in acid-free containers — the legacy of careful preservation by Meng Dechang, a 35-year-old history graduate who joined the cemetery in 2022.

The collection consists mostly of everyday objects — decayed rubber soles, metal bowls and uniform buttons. But amid the routine items are reminders of personal lives cut short.

"There's a harmonica — rare, and remarkably intact," Meng said. "We can only imagine that during breaks, soldiers gathered to play melodies from home."

Another artifact, a small signaling whistle, holds a starker reality. "When communication lines failed on the battlefield, a coded signal on a whistle meant life or death," she said. "Guardianship of these relics gives my life meaning. Every piece belonged to a different young person. They are the only physical link between those soldiers and the world today."

For docent Xie Yutong, 34, the work is a continuation of her military service. Having served 12 years in the 15th Airborne Corps — the same historical unit as renowned war heroes Huang Jiguang and Qiu Shaoyun — she sees the cemetery as an extension of her own squad. "When I see these graves, I'm not telling someone else's story," Xie said. "I'm telling the story of my own unit's heroes."

Next generation

The cemetery is not frozen in time. Last year, it received more than 500,000 visitors — a number that has grown every year, Wang Chunjie said. School groups, tourists and young people traveling on their own initiative are a common sight, she said.

Young people taking the initiative to visit martyrs' cemeteries is a vivid manifestation of the continuous inheritance of the "Red bloodline". The ideas of remembering history and honoring heroes are steadily taking root among the younger generation, she added.

Wang Chunjie has taken the cemetery's stories beyond its gates, lecturing at schools and universities across the country. "When we show up in person — the people who guard these heroes every day — it hits differently," she said.

Not all visitors are relatives. Wen Dong, 29, traveled from Gansu province. He was at the cemetery on a day off, drawn by news of the latest repatriated martyrs. "We used to visit memorials back home too," he said. "Every time I go to a new city, I find a place like this."

When asked why a young man would spend his free time at a martyrs' cemetery, Wen paused. "It's hard to put into words," he said. "For me, it's not like climbing a mountain or sightseeing. This is different. It's a feeling — a sense of respect." He plans to bring his children here one day. "Of course I will tell them these stories. The spirit has to be passed on."

For Yue Zhonghou, a 74-year-old retired worker from Beijing, the war is personal history. Born in 1952, the year the fighting was still going on, he grew up in its shadow.

He made his first pilgrimage to the Shenyang cemetery recently — a trip he had promised himself for years.

Yue was visiting Shenyang while his wife attended a class reunion. "I finally carved out a day," he said. For Yue, the war's significance transcends military victory.

"We were so poor then. Yet we took on the world's most powerful military — and we prevailed," he said. "That confidence, that unity — it's in our DNA now. Our nation as a whole will never forget."

He plans to tell his 40-year-old son what he saw and felt, and believes that the spirit should be passed from generation to generation. "The spirit of that war is the foundation of China today. No difficulty we face now is harder than what they endured, and we will prevail no matter what hardships we face in the future."

Fact Box

Repatriation of Chinese People's Volunteers soldiers' remains from the Republic of Korea (2014-26)

Since 2014, China and the Republic of Korea have conducted 13 consecutive repatriations of the remains of Chinese People's Volunteers martyrs who sacrificed their lives during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53). A total of 1,023 sets of remains have been returned to China and laid to rest at the Chinese People's Volunteers martyrs' cemetery in Shenyang, Liaoning province.

Batch Date Number of Remains

1st March 28, 2014 437

2nd March 20, 2015 68

3rd March 31, 2016 36

4th March 22, 2017 28

5th March 28, 2018 20

6th April 3, 2019 10

7th Sept 27, 2020 117

8th Sept 2, 2021 109

9th Sept 16, 2022 88

10th Nov 23, 2023 25

11th Nov 28, 2024 43

12th Sept 12, 2025 30

13th April 22, 2026 12

Source: Ministry of Veterans Affairs