The Chinese Cemetery and Fulfilled Dreams

Yesterday, Nicole and I went to the Chinese Cemetery. It had been on my to do tourist list since I first perused my imported Lonely Planet Philippines book. I had invited Nicole to come with me and take pictures, but it always seemed that in the six months of her stay here, our schedules were always at odds. Either she'd be busy or I'd be gone for the weekend. We had been scheduled to go diving yesterday but due to some unfortunate circumstances we found ourselves with a free day. I immediately contacted Nicole and we made arrangements to finally go see the Chinese cemetery. Neither of us were
(pictured above, Millionaire's Row)
really prepared to go, and I had left my city map so with the quick help of google, we set out to find where it was. We enlisted the help of a guide, Jun, who took us through some of the history of the place, as well as some tidbits of interesting information. The cemetery was developed in the 70s and is apparently the only one of its kind. Rumor has it the Chinese just wanted to copy the cool Filipino tombs and make them ostentatiously fancy for their dead relatives. The houses of the dead include private bathrooms, benches and some even have dining tables, chandeliers and air conditioners for the relatives who drop by. A piece of land, and structure will set you back at least a million pesos and sometimes much more. For every structure, there were good luck statues, such as this lion, red symbols for longevity and and chimneys to burn fake money and incense for the dead. The mausoleums were well maintained by caretakers and are a frequent site for both family and tourists. Some tombs displayed colored paper to indicate that family members had dropped by to say hello. I really liked the place, and it seemed a place that invited the living to remember the dead and visit once in a while, rather than the foreboding dilapidated graveyards I've seen.









This pagoda below is part of a memorial for one of the famous Chinese Filipinos. It overlooks the Rose Tower terraces, which are like the rice terraces of the dead. The bodies buried in these terraces were all victims of the 1968 7 magnitude earthquake that felled the RoseTower in Manila.
Another memorial that is one of the central obelisks found in the cemetery. It's the bright orange wall you see on the left side of the globe.












This is the Children's wall where hundreds of children are buried, almost all under the age of 10. Families pay to have them entombed there for 12 years and afterwards, they have to either pay to extend the "rental space" or take out the bones. Many of the grave markers I saw were for children who died at childbirth. They didn't have enough time to make an impact on the world besides in the memories of their parents and the 15 year grave markers.