2016年CRI Pets Lovers Pay Respect to Their Companion on Traditional Chinese Holiday（在线收听）

Pets Lovers Pay Respect to Their Companion on Traditional Chinese Holiday

Tian Peiheng is a 66-year-old retiree and is visiting the grave of her Pomeranian, Meimei.

Along with her husband and daughter, Tian clears the dead leaves from inside her pet's mausoleum and cleans the dust off the grave. 

"Are you doing well, in heaven," Tian asks as she wipes down Meimei's grave. 

Tian had nurtured Meimei for ten years and says her feelings were "indescribable" after she lost her pet nearly five years ago. 

"Every year I come with my whole family, my husband and my daughter, to sweep Meimei's grave together. She lived with us for ten years, so I have deep feelings for her. She was just like my own child, so after she left us, at the time we felt it was psychologically unbearable, so after she was gone, it was just like losing my own baby."

Tomb Sweeping Day, which falls on April 4, is a time when Chinese pay respects to their deceased relatives by cleaning their tombs, but traditionally pets have not always been honoured in the same way. 

Baifu Pet Cemetery, where Meimei rests, is on the outskirts of Beijing and already holds over three thousand graves for pets including chickens, ducks and even chinchillas. 

According to groundskeeper and gravestone designer Zhang Youwang, the cemetery was founded in 2005 and is "the first of its kind," filling in a needed space for the growing demands of China's increasing number of pet lovers. 

"For those who do not raise dogs or pets, it's difficult for them to understand. (They ask) how could people treat animals in this way? They're just like people, they are people, it's equal, they're all the same. So when (the animal dies), they need to come visit their grave even more often than a human's (grave). Why? Dogs are so loyal to people. They have thoughts, even about people. Good thoughts, bad thoughts--they have them all."

A single plot of land for a grave site can be rented for a lease of 30 years, with a starting fee ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 yuan 300- 700 US dollars plus an additional yearly fee of 50 yuan, or nearly 8 US dollars.

Chen Shaochun is the general manager of Beijing Baifu pets burial center.

He explains why people come to pay respects to their pets during the Tomb-sweeping day. 

"It's part of our tradition to pay tribute to our deceased loved ones. Now little animals have already been family members of a lot of pet lovers. For example in many families, the pets are called as "baby" or "son" so it's natural for them to visit their former companions during traditional holidays."

The manager says it's not just around holidays that many pet owners visit their companions' graves, with some showing up more than once a week. 

Many big cities in China have witnessed a rapid increase in the number of pets.

Statistics from Beijing Public Security Bureau shows the number of dogs that were officially registered exceeded 920,000 in 2010.