Suzhou, China

So here’s the thing about Chinese cemeteries. They’re not very well maintained. These are some of the ladies who take care of this one, near Suzhou. When you visit, they  swarm and start weeding and sweeping, promising all the while that the weeds sprang up overnight.

We brought flowers and were warned again and again to rip off the stems when we left them at the cemetery. Otherwise, flowers are often stolen and sold as new.

When we visited, four cemetery workers showed up. They stay until you leave, and the custom is to pay each one a tip of 10 yuan, about $1.50, no matter how many people there are. You kind of just have to, or who knows what they’ll do to your loved ones. Once you pay them, they sort of melt into the dark green hedges that line the hill, just as suddenly as they appeared.