Village chief returns ashes to ancestral homelands

This year, before Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, fell on April 4, Liu Te-wen, from Taiwan, made several trips to the Chinese mainland.

He hoped to fulfill the wishes of veterans who, after passing away in Taiwan, wanted to have their ashes taken back to their hometowns on the mainland.

On the evening of March 11, Liu landed at an airport in Qingdao, Shandong province, his red backpack bearing the words "Taking you home". Within it was a 12-kilogram urn containing the ashes of a deceased veteran born in Qingdao, who had been stranded in Taiwan since 1947 due to the separation between the two shores.