分类： society

As the Qingming Festival, a traditional Chinese occasion for ancestor veneration and family reunion, approaches this year, cross-Strait ferry routes have recorded a sharp uptick in passenger traffic, with thousands of Taiwan compatriots journeying back to their ancestral hometowns on the Chinese mainland to pay respects at ancestral tombs and reconnect with their family roots.

Official data from the Fujian Maritime Safety Administration shows that on April 4, the four established “Mini Three Links” routes — which deliver direct maritime connectivity between Fujian province’s coastal regions on the mainland and Taiwan-held Kinmen and Matsu islands — handled 6,655 passenger trips, marking a 22.5% year-on-year increase.

The busiest of these routes, the Xiamen-Kinmen corridor, which is widely favored for its short travel times, frequent sailings and affordable fares, accommodated nearly 6,000 cross-Strait travelers on that single Saturday, with Taiwan compatriots making up more than 70% of that total. Local border inspection authorities project that the total passenger volume for the Xiamen-Kinmen route across the three-day Qingming holiday will climb to almost 20,000.

For many Taiwan families, this annual journey is far more than a seasonal trip: it is a centuries-old tradition meant to pass down collective identity to younger generations. Li Yung-hung, a Taiwan compatriot who traveled to Xiamen via the ferry route this holiday, emphasized that her family has upheld this practice for generations, noting that the trip teaches younger family members that their cultural and ancestral roots are firmly planted on the mainland.

Chen Chin-lai, deputy head of Xiamen’s Gaoqi Border Inspection Station, pointed out that more than 80% of Taiwan compatriots can trace their ancestral origins back to Fujian. This annual wave of ancestral homecoming during Qingming, he explained, serves as a vivid, tangible reminder that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share the same cultural lineage and belong to one Chinese family.

To support Taiwan compatriots in tracing their family histories, local institutions rolled out targeted support ahead of the holiday. On April 3, the China Museum for Fujian-Taiwan Kinship, in partnership with the Quanzhou Border Inspection Station, launched free genealogy matching services at a port in Nan’an, Quanzhou. Through a simple QR code scan, visiting Taiwan compatriots can register their requests for assistance to trace their family trees and locate ancestral villages.

Since opening to the public in 2006, the museum has built a decades-long track record of supporting root-seeking efforts, having helped more than 300 Taiwan compatriots successfully identify and reconnect with their ancestral clans on the mainland over the past 20 years.

Cross-Strait people-to-people exchanges continue to strengthen bonds across the Taiwan Strait, as one young Taiwanese visitor recently discovered his deep ancestral connection to mainland China during a cultural trip to Hubei province. Twenty-year-old Huang Chao-jung, a young man from Taiwan with the family name Huang, joined a recent cross-Strait exchange gathering hosted in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province, where he traveled to Jiangxia District — the historic ancestral homeland widely recognized as the original origin of all Chinese people with the Huang surname.

For years, Huang had grown up hearing the well-known traditional saying that all individuals with the surname Huang trace their lineage back to Jiangxia. But the saying remained an abstract piece of family lore until he stepped onto the soil of Jiangxia District himself. Standing in the region that has held this ancestral significance for countless Huang families across generations, Huang said he finally felt the tangible meaning of the tradition. He described an overwhelming sense of belonging and connection that he had not experienced before, saying the trip allowed him to complete a meaningful journey to trace his family’s roots.

This root-tracing trip is part of a broader wave of cross-Strait cultural exchanges that have brought growing numbers of young people from Taiwan to the Chinese mainland to explore their family histories, connect with long-distant relatives, and build personal ties with communities on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. For many young Taiwanese participants, these trips do more than teach them about family history: they create personal, emotional connections that reinforce the shared cultural and ancestral heritage that unites people across the Strait.

For 31-year-old Beijing-based state-owned enterprise worker Zhong Jing, 2024 marked the start of a new, intentional hobby: becoming a “weekend historian,” trading routine city weekends for cross-country road trips with friends to hunt for lesser-known historical sites scattered across China’s countryside. After each excursion, Zhong documents his observations and reflections, turning casual travel into a deeply personal journey of cultural discovery that has reshaped how he engages with the past and broadened his perspective.

It was during an October trip to Luoyang, Henan province, that this passion clicked into place for Zhong. Long celebrated as the capital of 13 ancient Chinese dynasties, Luoyang retains few visible above-ground traces of its imperial golden ages. Most of its layered history lies buried beneath the soil, so Zhong and his travel companions mapped out an itinerary connecting remote imperial tombs spread across the region’s rolling landscape.

Of all the sites he has explored on these trips, none left a more lasting mark than Changling Mausoleum, the final resting place of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534), tucked into the slopes of Luoyang’s Mangshan Mountain. When Zhong arrived at the site, he encountered a playful, memorable moment: a group of local high school students had brought a tongue-in-cheek certificate reading “Luoyang Real Estate Annual Sales Champion Award” to present to the long-dead emperor. The joke carried quiet weight: Emperor Xiaowen relocated his dynasty’s capital to Luoyang 1,500 years ago, breathing new life into the city that endures to this day.

The encounter sparked deep reflection for Zhong. Growing up, traditional historical education framed the Northern Wei as just one of many competing dynasties during a chaotic period of division, overshadowed by the grand unification of the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC) and the military prowess of the Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220). That context left little room to appreciate the dynasty’s transformative legacy — a gap that visiting the emperor’s tomb in person filled.

What strikes Zhong most deeply through his on-the-ground explorations is the core truth of Chinese civilization: it is a diverse, deeply unified whole, sustained by its long history of openness and cultural integration. Emperor Xiaowen, a ruler of ethnic Xianbei heritage, championed mass cultural and ethnic fusion by embracing Han traditions, a policy of openness that Zhong argues laid groundwork for the later strength and cosmopolitanism of the Tang Dynasty (618–907). This willingness to welcome new influences, he says, is what keeps civilizations vibrant; without it, cultures stagnate, trapped in closed cycles of repetition.

Today, the slopes of Mangshan Mountain are dotted with imperial burials, and small pavilions near the tombs hang with an eclectic mix of banners: some honor the historical contributions of the figures buried below, while others carry the same kind of playful, irreverent humor that the high school students brought to Changling Mausoleum. A short distance from Emperor Xiaowen’s tomb, Zhong also visited the resting place widely believed to belong to Li Yu, the last ruler of the Southern Tang during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960). Remembered by history as a fallen king, Li Yu is celebrated across the centuries as one of China’s most gifted poets, whose work captures universal human emotions that transcend his royal status.

“We do not worship victors; we treasure the hearts that have given the purest voice to human feeling,” Zhong observes. More than a thousand years after Li Yu lived, his emotions still draw modern visitors to stand quietly before his tomb. While few people today know what it means to lose an entire kingdom, everyone knows the weight of regret; though most have not watched dynasties rise and fall, all have tasted life’s quiet helplessness. The poetic sighs Li Yu wrote centuries ago still echo through time, finding a home in every heart that can understand them.

This firsthand feature was reported by China Daily’s Li Hongyang, updated on April 6, 2026.

Tucked away in the mountainous terrain of Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, in the rural town of Baihe, Pingbian Miao Autonomous County, a unique century-old way of life continues to unfold every Monday along the tracks of the historic Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. This is the famous ‘Train Market’ of Baiheqiao Station, a living relic of industrial and cultural history that has now earned the title of China’s ‘last train market’, drawing curious visitors and keeping generations-old trading traditions alive.

The market’s origins stretch back to the construction of the narrow-gauge Yunnan-Vietnam Railway more than 100 years ago, a line that once connected inland China to global trade routes through Vietnam. Long before modern highways and large commercial hubs transformed regional commerce, local communities leaned on the railway as both a transportation link and a natural gathering place for trade. Every week, villagers from surrounding mountain valleys would travel to the station, where access was easiest for communities spread across the rugged landscape, to buy and sell goods.

Today, the centuries-old line has undergone massive changes. It no longer functions as a primary transport artery for passenger travel, but the Kaiyuan-Hekou section still maintains limited freight operations, with one or two cargo trains rolling through Baiheqiao Station on an average day. The rhythm of the market has adapted perfectly to this schedule: when the train’s whistle echoes through the valley and the locomotive rumbles into view, vendors step back from their stall spaces that line both sides of the tracks, pausing their haggling and transactions. As soon as the train passes and the tracks clear, trade resumes just as quickly as it paused.

Every week, vendors arrive before dawn, carrying handwoven baskets stacked high with homegrown produce, free-range poultry, foraged mountain delicacies, and seasonal vegetables. What once was a weekly gathering exclusively for nearby local residents has grown into a popular cultural and tourism attraction in recent years. Each Monday, tourists from across Yunnan and other provinces across China travel to the remote station to experience this one-of-a-kind market. They come not just to purchase authentic local farm products, but to walk in the footsteps of history, exploring a living industrial heritage that has adapted rather than disappeared in the face of modernization.

As nearby communities have gradually shifted toward more developed urban centers further from the railway line, the Baiheqiao Train Market stands as a persistent anchor for tradition. Unlike many historic market sites that have been relocated or turned into sterile tourist attractions, this market retains its original character, continuing to serve both local traders and modern visitors who seek a connection to China’s rural and industrial past.

To mark the 2026 Tomb Sweeping Day, China launched its first centralized national online platform for funeral and interment services on Sunday, a development crafted to tackle longstanding public concerns over opaque pricing and fragmented information in the country’s funeral sector.

Developed under the official guidance of China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, the new platform — named China Funeral Network and accessible at https://www.zgbznet.com.cn — is designed to streamline end-of-life planning for grieving families by aggregating authoritative, up-to-date information across every core stage of funeral arrangements, from initial mourning services to final burial and ongoing memorial activities.

At the heart of the platform is its “one-stop” service model, which integrates national access to official government portals for handling all post-death administrative affairs. A key interactive feature is its map-based interface, which pinpoints the exact locations of funeral homes, columbaria, and cemeteries across every region of China, alongside full details on service offerings, required application procedures, and transparent pricing breakdowns. Users can filter search results by geographic region, proximity to their location, and type of service institution to find resources that match their specific needs.

Officials confirmed that civil affairs departments from all 31 provincial-level administrative regions across mainland China, plus the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, contributed to the platform’s development and national rollout.

“The platform will help bereaved families quickly locate nearby funeral service resources and gain a clear understanding of service pricing, which effectively addresses the information asymmetry that often creates additional stress for families during an already difficult time of funeral arrangements,” explained Xu Zesheng, a senior official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs’ national funeral services task force.

Beyond core service information, the website also hosts dedicated sections covering national and local funeral policies and regulations, updates on industry-wide developments, and public case alerts about unregulated or problematic service providers. These additional resources are designed to serve both the general public and funeral industry professionals seeking authoritative regulatory updates, cultural guidance, and professional training materials.

Moving forward, authorities plan to expand the platform’s existing functions to further promote the adoption of environmentally friendly burial practices and encourage more civilized, cost-effective forms of memorialization that align with modern public needs.

In a coordinated move aligned with the platform’s launch, six newly revised or formulated industry standards for funeral services also went into effect on the same day, with a focus on advancing digital transformation and raising overall service quality across the sector.

One of the new standards outlines technical requirements for communication architecture and interface protocols for funeral internet of things (IoT) systems, establishing clear technical guidelines for digital infrastructure to support more innovative governance and service delivery in the funeral space.

A second standard formalizes rules for secure data sharing and exchange between civil affairs regulatory bodies and service institutions including funeral homes, cemeteries, and columbaria, strengthening the sector’s overall capacity for secure data transmission and practical data application.

A revised public satisfaction evaluation standard formalizes core principles, performance indicators, and assessment procedures for measuring funeral service quality, creating a clear framework for service providers to implement targeted improvements to their offerings.

Additionally, a new set of standards for electronic certification across core funeral services — covering cremation, ash storage, and burial — is designed to streamline digital documentation across key end-of-life processes and build a stronger foundation for data-driven sector management.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs noted that it will continue refining the national funeral industry standards system and strengthening regulatory oversight to support the healthy, well-regulated development of the sector for all Chinese families.

As the Qingming Festival, China’s traditional occasion for honoring ancestors and departed heroes, approaches in 2026, a growing trend of spontaneous tribute-paying by young people at the graves of historical figures has emerged, bridging the gap between centuries and bringing centuries-old revolutionary spirits to life for modern generations.

Twenty-one-year-old Wu Yutong, a university student hailing from Dalian, Liaoning province, stumbled upon an unexpected connection during a recent trip to Hangzhou, Zhejiang. While checking her location in her hotel room, she discovered she was staying just hundreds of meters away from the final resting place of Qiu Jin — a pioneering 20th-century Chinese revolutionary and feminist who was executed by Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) authorities in 1907 at just 31 years old, a heroine Wu has admired since her middle school years.

The following morning, on a clear January day, Wu set off across Gushan Hill, which sits along the scenic shoreline of Hangzhou’s iconic West Lake. Winding past crowds of casual tourists and street vendors selling local handicrafts and souvenirs, she followed a quiet path to a secluded clearing ringed with tall pine and camphor trees. There, a white marble statue of Qiu Jin, holding a sword in hand, stands in quiet tribute to her legacy.

Wu came prepared with two carefully chosen offerings: a bouquet of chrysanthemums, selected to honor a poem Qiu wrote about the resilient flower, and a bright red silk scarf, placed to symbolize the blood Qiu shed fighting for her radical beliefs of gender equality and national liberation. “The fire in her heart never went out,” Wu shared reflecting on the moment. She spent an entire hour standing quietly before the statue, and when passing tourists mistakenly identified Qiu as other famous figures from Chinese history or folklore — such as the legendary snake spirit Bai Suzhen, or 20th-century Communist martyr Jiang Zhujun — Wu took the time to share Qiu Jin’s true story with them.

For Wu, the visit marked the end of a long journey to connect with the heroine she had first encountered as a one-dimensional name in middle school textbooks, where Qiu was reduced to just a few lines describing her as a revolutionary patriot and martyr. It was only after Wu sought out Qiu’s own writing — including the poetry and essays Qiu published in *Chinese Women’s Journal*, the groundbreaking feminist periodical she founded in 1907 — that she came to see Qiu as a fully realized person, not just a historical footnote.

“I no longer saw just a name but a girl trapped by her era, one who fought desperately to break free,” Wu explained. When she shared the story of her visit to the grave on Xiaohongshu (RedNote), China’s popular lifestyle and social sharing platform, the overwhelming public response took her by surprise. To date, her post has earned more than 35,000 likes, and in the comment section, she found a thriving community of other young people who share this quiet hobby of paying respects to historical heroes.

Commenters asked for directions to the site, while one young artist even shared an original New Year portrait of Qiu Jin, painted with mountains and rivers across her robes — a visual tribute to the nation Qiu gave her life to improve. For Wu, this trend of visiting historical graves is far from the modern celebrity culture many young people engage in; it is a deeply personal practice that allows her and other young Chinese to draw strength from the past to navigate modern challenges.

Qiu Jin has become a mirror for Wu’s own life choices: “I remind myself to stand tall like her, to be the master of my own fate,” she said. “I don’t see it as chasing celebrities, but rather drawing strength from history. When we face challenges or feel lost in our own lives, thinking about the spirit of historical figures gives us courage to move forward. In the quiet of an ancient tomb, we can find in history the direction and confidence to keep going.”

This grassroots movement of tribute-paying ahead of the 2026 Qingming Festival highlights a growing desire among young people in China to connect with their history beyond formal education, building intimate, cross-temporal bonds with the figures who shaped modern China.