Yuhua Merit Garden, a cemetery¹ in Jiangsu's provincial² capital, Nanjing, has opened a virtual online bank, dubbed³ the "Bank of Heaven."

 

江苏南京雨花功德园公墓开通一个虚拟网上银行，名为“天堂银行”。
 

 

Launched ahead of this year's Qingming, or Tomb-Sweeping Festival in early April, "Bank of Heaven" is being promoted as a more ecologically-friendly way to commemorate⁴ and honor their dead loved-ones. Chinese tradition usually involves the burning of joss sticks and paper money to honor the memory of the dead.

 

By scanning a QR code, visitors to Yuhua Merit Garden can enter the name of their loved one, then transfer a select amount of money. This then generates a message of mourning. "The online virtual transfer is free of charge, and the operation through mobile phone is also very convenient. Paying tribute to the loved ones in this way is an embodiment of social progress," said a visitor to the cemetery on Sunday.

 

"Bank of Heaven" is the latest move by Yuhua Merit Garden to create a green, smoke-free cemetery. Ahead of last year's Qingming Festival, the cemetery launched a different promotion⁵, offering a free exchange of paper money that visitors intended to burn for fresh flowers.

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