Till death do us part: Chinese couple tie the knot in a cemetery
CGTN
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(Photo: CGTN)

A Chinese couple's wedding venue shocked social media on Sunday. To fulfill the vow of “till death do us part”, the couple held their wedding at a cemetery last week in northeast China's Anshan City, Liaoning Province, Qianshan Evening News reports.

As even attending a funeral would be considered a taboo for newlyweds in some parts of China, why would the couple prefer such a creepy location? There is, in fact, a very touching story behind.

The couple, who are both staff at the cemetery in question, had been together for years before deciding to get married. During their time together, the groom, Cao Mingbao, was nursed through a terminal disease by his bride, Jiang Jinbo, and because of this, the two believed the cemetery would be the perfect site for wedding. They believed it would symbolize overcoming death – the only thing that could tear them apart.

Cao's first marriage ended many years earlier when his wife died of breast cancer. Deciding to turn over a new leaf, Cao took his 10-year-old daughter and her grandmother to start a new life in Harbin, capital of Liaoning's neighboring province, Heilongjiang.

In the most unlikely of circumstances, Cao suffered an accident at work which nearly blinded him in both eyes. The treatment cost him tens of thousands of yuan.

After getting back to health, Cao met Jiang, his future wife in 2015, but life played a trick on him again as Cao was diagnosed with leukemia one year later, and fighting the disease became his “full-time job”.

However, the misfortune didn't scare off his loyal partner, who looked after him day and night. “Her tireless support meant a lot to me in the roughest of times. I just want to spend the rest of my life making her happy,” said Cao after he pulled through from the serious illness. 

In 2017, Cao started working in the cemetery in Liaoning with his mother and sister, planting trees every day. Cao soon settled down with the help of his colleagues and asked the boss for a position for Jiang.

After picking her up from her hometown, the couple ended their long-distance relationship and the graveyard, a place that others would consider grim, became a sweet home for Cao and his family.

Cao and Jiang specially prepared a buffet of peanuts, chestnuts, dates and red apples harvested from the graveyard for the wedding guests. There was no lavish banquet, firework display or any other ostentatious form of celebration at the ceremony.

The couple's wedding was also witnessed by people who visited the graves of loved ones. Though it was incredibly unexpected at first, the visitors fully understood and gave their blessings to the newly-weds.

Surprisingly, this is not the first graveyard wedding in China.

Yong'an Cemetery in north China's Tianjin Municipality has held three group wedding ceremonies since 2008. In 2011, a groom from Liaoning's Jinzhou City prepared a lawn and outdoor wedding at a cemetery for his bride, just for a unique memory for her.