The upcoming weekend will see an anticipated spike in traffic during the first peak of the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, police in Jiangsu have said.
The period from this weekend to the Qingming Festival in early April will see cemeteries and graveyards overwhelmed by large numbers of tomb-sweepers.
The local police said the heavy traffic around the cemeteries is expected to last till April 4th, the next day after the Qingming Festival.
Cemetery authorities in Jiangsu are advising the local people to refrain from worshiping their deceased ancestors on weekends. The traffic police will impose a traffic control on the roads leading into the cemeteries.
Nanjing Pujue Temple cemetery, the largest cemetery in the province, received more than 15,000 tomb-sweepers on Sunday. In the nearby Jiangning Yinlong Mountain cemetery, more than 10,000 people showed up to pay homage to their deceased ancestors. The Phoenix Tombs in Suzhou also ushered in the first peak flow of tomb-sweepers with many of them coming from Shanghai.
In response to the surge in the number of tomb-sweepers, the Wulong Tombs of Hengshan Bridge in Changzhou began to send more staff from last week to maintain the normal order of the tombs. Wuxi Bus Company has added two tomb-sweeping routes, which will be open every weekend and during the Qingming Festival.
The Tomb-Sweeping Festival or Qingming Festival is a time for the Chinese people to visit their ancestors’ tombs. More importantly, it is a period to honor and to pay respect to one's deceased ancestors and family members.
