Can this be a thing of the past soon?
The Chinese are turning to environmentally friendlier ways to remember their loved ones during the Qingming Festival, according to Xinhua:
The China Consumers’ Association says that more than 1,000 tons of paper is burned each year during the festival with the total value estimated at around 10 billion yuan (US$1.59 billion) nationwide.
“We arrived at the idea of using a single fake check instead of large amounts of fake paper cash, since it saves a lot of trouble and is good for the environment,” said Han Jinrui, a funeral service official in Harbin.
Other environmentally friendly methods have taken off all over the country.
In Baotou, an industrial city in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, authorities have asked residents to exchange fake money for flowers to honor their loved ones. In the city of Nantong in east China’s Jiangsu Province, the local government is calling on residents to plant trees in memory of the deceased.
