When I taught at the Chinese University, I drove through Ma On Shan on the way to work and back. The hills are among the most verdant and majestic in Hong Kong. Over a ten year period, I began to notice that graves were appearing on the hillside. Now, these graves have become "memorial gardens" with ornamental pine tress and other embellishments.
While everyone complains about the small house policy in the New Territories (see http://www.landsd.gov.hk/en/legco/house.htm, which have glutted areas like Sai Kung with thousands of three-storied houses, some with touching distance of each other, another insidious encroachment of our country parks goes on, unabated. They are the graves of indigenous villagers, the same ones who are eligible for the small houses. These graves are everywhere in our country parks, some occupying the most scenic spots overlooking bodies of water. The villagers are first buried in these graves and, after seven years, their bones are interred in more elaborate graves built of concrete.
Of course, these graves are the sites that are visited during Ching Ming Festival, which also lead to numerous hill/forest fires.
What's wrong with cremation?
Recent graves near Shan Liu village. Note the burned paper money.
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