Clean and graveyards (This week's Photo Hunt themes)

There's no doubt about it: when out hiking in Hong Kong, sooner or later, you will come across a grave or more, and pass by or pass through a graveyard.  Often, you will find these graves and graveyards to be located on hillsides, many of which face a body of water (usually the sea but I've also seen graves facing out to reservoirs, dams and other bodies of freshwater).  And usually, even if they are old, they look to be pretty well maintained and clean.

In my first year in Hong Kong, I used to occasionally go hiking with a Chinese woman who would get upset whenever our mutual (German) friend and I would take pictures of particularly impressive individual graves we spotted or almost invariably well-maintained and clean graveyards we were passing by or through.  The impression I got was that she thought that we were being disrespectful and disturbing the dead by photographing their resting place.    

In my defence, I don't think that I am likely to go click crazy whenever I spot a grave or graveyard -- be they clean or not -- the way that I do when I spot such as an interesting critter or more, or come across splendid vistas.  But as evidenced by this week's entry for Sandi's and Gattina's Photo Hunt, it's undeniably the case that I am indeed guilty of going ahead and taking photos of graves and graveyards on my hiking excursions. 

One reason stems from my continued fascination with how -- despite there being a preponderant of Hong Kongers whose preference is to steer clear of final resting places of people, particularly those they are not related to -- quite a few hiking trails really are laid out so close to graves and graveyards.  Another is that, in all honesty, it really does seem like many a grave or graveyard is laid out in a choice spot for viewing the surrounding scenery.

Traditionally, the Overseas Chinese in places like Malaysia sought to have final resting places on high land overlooking the sea.  (Even more ideally, these final resting places would look towards China, with the thought being that they would be able to look across the sea all the way back to their ancestral land.)  Although Hong Kong is (now) part of China, it seems that there's some elements of that thinking behind choices of ideal final resting place.  In any event, the result is -- as I think the third photo in this entry particularly shows -- many a grave and graveyard being located in places where the living enjoy great views (along with the apparently still seeing dead occupants of those final resting places)!