Chinese Cemetery

I've gotten a little behind on my posts due to the fact that Andi and I have been traveling. That just means I have a lot more coming soon! :p Anyway, last Saturday we took a day trip to Andi's father's hometown of Bengbu. We stopped by the hospital to see her grandfather, had lunch with aunt's, uncle's, and cousin's, but the most interesting part was going to a Chinese cemetery to see her grandmother.

The entrance to the cemetery from the inside. Just outside the gates there are small stalls selling flowers, firecrackers, cigarettes, incense, fruits, and cakes. You leave most of these items on the grave or lite the firecrackers and incense. They also burn money or leave alcohol. The thought process behind burning money or leaving edible items is that the dead can use them on the "other side." I saw several graves sprinkled with cigarettes or had fruit on them.  

The first spots right inside the entrance are quite large. They are also more expensive.

In China, it is mandatory that you are cremated. There are no coffins in China! Due to the fact that they have 13 billion people, they can't afford to waste space. In the space you would bury one American body, they can bury three.

Under the red tablet above is the ashes of a husband and a wife. Since someone will die first, the other side is left open and then closed after they are both dead.

There were many sections to the cemetery. Andi's grandmother was buried in one of the older ones. Everything was so close together, getting photo's wasn't really an option. As you get closer to the gate, the space opens up a bit like above.

This area was all new and filling up fast!

The only other thing interesting I saw that day was a women hacking up a turtle for soup! I have had turtle here in many different forms from soup to sauteed. It's not bad but there are a lot of bones!!