Qingming Memorials "Full of Technology": Drones and Robots Take Their Posts, Funeral Management Equipped with an "AI Brain"

On the 6th, Upstream News reported that during the just-passed Qingming Festival, from “tomb-plot navigation” to “AI large-model paper offerings,” various industries related to worship and funeral services in different places saw a fair number of new tech elements. Meanwhile, some newly emerging ways of worship and remembrance in recent years more clearly reflect the integration of today’s technological development with traditional culture.

Changsha: Drone cleaning and maintenance for a martyrs’ memorial stele

On April 3, a solemn sweeping-and-worship event was held at the Changsha County Martyrs’ Cemetery. At the scene, drone cleaning technology was used to provide technological input into the maintenance of commemoration facilities such as the martyrs’ memorial wall and bas-relief wall. Compared with traditional manual cleaning, drone operations are cleaner, more efficient, and more convenient. They can precisely cover corner areas that manual work struggles to reach, achieving meticulous, no-dead-angles cleaning, offering strong support for maintaining a clean, solemn, and dignified environment at the martyrs’ cemetery.

A drone is cleaning the martyrs’ memorial stele. New Hunan photo

To ensure the event could be carried out safely, in an orderly manner, and efficiently, the drone technology team was equipped with industrial-grade drones with high payload capacity and high precision, as well as autonomous obstacle-avoidance functions, along with professional cleaning systems. They carried out full-coverage, no-dead-angles cleaning of the stele and its supporting facilities.

Nanjing: A robot delivers the deceased’s final journey

Inside the Nanjing Funeral Home, a silver-gray flat cart quietly stopped at the entrance to the makeup department corridor. It is called “Lingzhou No. 3,” a body-transport robot. The robot travels along a fixed route; if pedestrians appear ahead, it will pause on its own, then continue once the people have passed. When it arrives at the cremation workshop, it precisely raises the platform height to be level with the caterpillar belt in front of the furnace—millimeter-level seamless alignment—so the body is delivered steadily into the cremation area.

“Lingzhou No. 3” body-transport robot. Photo by Ziniu News

The entire process is quiet and smooth, with not a hint of jostling. Next to it, the “Lingfan” robot is responsible for transporting cremated ashes from the ash-loading room to the window at the ash-dispensing location. Staff at the Nanjing Funeral Home said that in the past, manual carrying was limited by factors such as physical strength and road conditions, and the process had intermittent gaps. Now, robots can work continuously at a uniform speed, greatly improving transportation efficiency.

Beijing: Multiple cemeteries launch “tomb-plot navigation”

As Qingming approaches, Chaoyang District in Beijing rolled out a便民服务 initiative, launching a mobile navigation function for worship areas in the cemetery parks. Currently, the mobile navigation functions for Chaoyang Cemetery, Changqing Garden, and the section of the Overseas Chinese Cemetery have been launched. On the navigation map, the internal roads of the cemetery sections, the locations for领取 worship tools, water-filling points, restrooms, and more are clearly marked, making worship visits more convenient and more efficient. Residents can also use the “Jingtong” mini program, tap “tomb-plot navigation,” and reach their relatives’ tomb plots directly via the phone map. In addition, Babashan People’s Cemetery also首次 launched a mobile navigation service for cemetery sections, shortening the average time spent searching for a grave from 30 minutes to within 10 minutes.

Suzhou: Worship services get fitted with an “AI brain”

Ahead of Qingming 2024, the Civil Affairs Bureau of Kunshan City, together with relevant telecom providers, built a smart platform covering 21 cemeteries (cemetery sections) in the city and connecting 140 surveillance routes. The platform—its “cloud brain” for funeral management built with big data, the Internet of Things, and AI algorithms—is Kunshan’s cemetery smart management system “Know Early—Qingming Memorial Sweeping.”

When worshipers enter the “Know Early—Qingming Memorial Sweeping” section, they can view real-time human flow in the cemetery sections, carrying capacity, address and phone numbers. They can also directly sense the atmosphere on site through live-stream views from entrances/exits and main roads. When a cemetery section reaches red or orange warning thresholds, the system automatically sends SMS warnings to the three levels of management personnel: each cemetery, the township-level units, and the Kunshan City Civil Affairs Bureau.

Page of the smart cemetery management system. Photo by Suzhou Daily

Once intelligent analysis starts running, departments such as public security and transportation can make early predictions and link up quickly; scientific dispatching is no longer just talk. In addition, leveraging artificial intelligence technology, Kunshan uses AI algorithms to build an intelligent detection and early-warning network for open flames, installing 24-hour “electronic safety eyes” that never blink on all 21 cemetery sections. The system unifies the push of monitoring from high points, park videos, and road footage to the “Eyez AI platform.” It uses mature fire-incident detection algorithms to build a full-chain protective system. Over the two years since the system went into operation, it has achieved zero fire incidents, zero safety accidents, and zero negative public sentiment in memorial sweeping events, cumulatively serving more than 150k visits.

Online: Paper offerings and joss get a tech boost

Upstream News also noted that during this year’s Qingming Festival, paper offerings and related memorial items also picked up hot tech elements. Before the holiday, some netizens found on a shopping platform that a shop shipping from Chenzhou, Hunan, is selling AI paper-offering models such as “OpenClaw,” “DeepSeek,” and “ChatGPT.”

Craftsman-made handicrafts bearing the names of well-known AI applications, priced at 35.9 yuan. Photo by Jimu News

According to reports by Jimu News, a shop offers handicraft items manually made with the names of well-known AI applications, priced at 35.9 yuan. The maker of the paper offerings, “A Yue,” introduced: “Actually, the paper offerings for making AI models come from a customer. He told me that these days the times are developing very fast, and AI large models have also been incorporated into daily life. If people in the next world can’t experience it, they’ll definitely feel very lonely. And I hope they can enjoy the convenience of tech life.”

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Technology empowerment and cultural inheritance resonate together

Meanwhile, worship and remembrance methods that have emerged in recent years using new technologies as carriers also, from the psychological and cultural level, reflect the integration of current technological development with traditional culture.

On April 3, according to a report by Cover News, as of now, China has more than 9,400 cloud worship-related enterprises that are currently operating or in existence. It is worth noting that as of 2026, about 1,000 additional related enterprises have been registered.

There are already more than 9,400 cloud worship-related enterprises in China that are in operation or still exist. Photo by Cover News

Basic functions such as virtual flowers, electronic candles, and online messages have become standard. What’s more, some platforms use technologies such as AI voice remembrance, 3D scene reconstruction, and AR image overlays to create immersive memorial experiences. Users can upload photos, videos, and text materials of the deceased to build a complete digital memory library—so that longing is no longer limited to the brief moments of memorial sweeping, but is transformed into family cultural assets that can be kept for the long term and passed down from generation to generation.

The sustained prosperity of cloud worship is, in essence, the creative transformation of traditional filial piety culture in the digital age. This innovation in form does not weaken the core significance of worship; instead, it continues the cultural gene of “being careful in the end and pursuing what came before” in younger generations through more convenient ways to participate.

Upstream News, compiled from China.com.cn, New Hunan, Beijing Daily, The Beijing News, Ziniu News, Suzhou Daily, Jimu News, Cover News, and Haibao News, etc.