April 4th was the tomb-sweeping day in China, the first time it came as a legal holiday. Plus the following weekend people have 3 days off, enabling those far away from home to pay a visit back to the hometown. I was one of them.

I didn’t expect the situation could be that bad with no ticket to my hometown unsold in any passenger station in GZ on 3rd. But for the ticket my hometown fellow gave to me I couldn’t make it to go home that day, even though it took me 65 Yuan (50% risen) and 4 hours due to the terrible traffic condition.

I don’t know if it’s worthwhile going all the way just to show our respect to the ancestors. The bus arranged to set out at 1:40 PM didn’t show up until 3:30, and I was kept in the jam-packed and stuffy passenger station for quite a long time, with nowhere to stand not even sit.

People‘s keen on Tomb-sweeping day is not secondary to that on spring festival. The legalization of this holiday just encourages a home rush. Being serious with this day has been sth traditionally unchanged, even someone bad enough to abuse his old parents seems to have great loyalty to his ancestors, spending lots of money to commemorate them in an luxurious way in hope that his “good deed” would be rewarded in some way, like making a killing in the stock market or winning the lottery, hah, ridiculous enough, isn’t it?

I noticed nowadays the countryside has been undertaking some profound changes, obviously indicated from the poor’s hate to the rich, and the rich’s scorn to the poor. Now the tomb-sweeping day is like a get-together for those working from different places far from the countryside, giving them a chance to show everybody they have made a lot of money, giving them a good reason to feel proud showing off his ACCORD to people who’s never seen a BENZ. Now it’s coming clear why they are keep on this day.

Interesting !!

What’s the most interesting is that, as is reported on TV, people nowadays not only burn “paper money” for their ancestors, but also some paper “computer”, “sports cars” “villas” and even “valentines”. OMG, they are really modern enough, even their ancestors could keep abreast with the time because of them. Regardless the modern stuff like computers or cars, would their grand grand ma go jealous when their grand grand pa receive a “valentine” from his grand grand son?