As part of the activities during the Qingming Festival, or China’s Tomb Sweeping Day, people pay respects to the revolutionary martyrs and national heroes who shed their blood in their service for the country. n Tongliao City of north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, over 1,500 people came to the city’s martyrs’ cemetery, laying wreaths and flowers in front of the martyrs’ monument and paying silent tribute to the sacrifices that were made for their country.  Over the last few years, China’s top leadership has stressed the importance of remembering the sacrifice of the country’s national heroes.

“They sacrificed themselves for the country and its people. We should never forget them,” said Zhao Ruilan, a veteran who was there on the day. Meanwhile, in south China’s Guangdong Province, officers of a local C oast Guard unit lined up on their patrol boat, tossing flower petals into the sea in memory of their fallen comrades. “This commemoration is not only a purification of our spirit, but also a call of duty. We work hard with the revolutionary forefathers as our role models, inheriting their spiritual legacy and conscientiously taking on our responsibilities,” said Chen Lin, a Coast Guard officer.  

President Xi Jinping has been an example for others, by paying tribute to martyrs and national heroes, as well as by meeting the martyrs’ descendants, every time he visits historical revolutionary base areas in China. Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has stressed on several occasions that “a nation that is hopeful cannot be without heroes, and a promising country cannot be without pioneers,” a sentiment he shared during a ceremony in 2015 where he awarded medals to veterans who fought in World War II.