In this sorrowful tomb-sweeping season around April 5, some Chinese are logging on to the Internet to pay their respects to the deceased instead of traveling to the graveyard.

A memorial website launched by a local graveyard has attracted quite a few visitors by setting up an on-line memorial hall for the deceased.

Zhou Kan is currently busy building an online memorial hall for her mother, whose death two years ago made Zhou so upset that she used to travel an hour to the suburbs to sweep her mother's tomb.

Zhou's sister, currently living in Australia, also finds the website convenient because she can deliver flowers, burn candles and spray wine for her mother online, just like traditional Chinese do in front of concrete graves.

Actually, online tomb-sweeping has relieved many citizens of the burden of fighting through long queues of buses and people traveling to graveyards.

According to a senior official with the website, currently some 600,000 people visit the website per day to pay their respects to the deceased.

(Xinhua 04/04/2001)