Remains of Chinese Korean War soldiers buried in northeast China  

437具抗美援朝在韓志愿軍烈士遺骸安葬沈陽

Remains of 437 Chinese soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War were reburied in northeast China after they were excavated and returned from the Republic of Korea (ROK).

A grand ceremony was held Wednesday morning at Martyrs' Park in Shenyang, capital city of Liaoning Province. It was attended by the provincial governor Li Xi, along with veterans and relatives of the soldiers.

Li delivered an elegiac address, before 27 soldiers fired to salute the deceased.

As coffins of the martyrs were carried into the cemetery, they could finally rest in peace in their homeland, more than 60 years after they said farewell to their beloved ones and left to fight in the war in Korean peninsula.

"It is comforting to see them back and buried here," said 85-year-old Lu Shouhu. On the battlefield, he once dug a pit to bury a deceased fellow. "I wonder if he is among those nameless martyrs," Lu said.

Cai Zhengguo, one of the martyrs, was a deputy commander in the Chinese People's Volunteer (CPV) Army. "When I see the coffins, I seemed to see my father back," said his son Cai Xiaodong. "They will not be forgotten."

The 437 martyrs buried on Wednesday were once in a cemetery in Gyeonggi-do in the ROK. After discussion, the two countries started evacuation of their remains on December 19 last year. The coffins were carried back to China in March.

The Chinese People's Volunteer Army fought side by side with the DPRK army in the Korean War against the South Korean army and U.S.-led UN forces. Tens of thousands of CPV soldiers died on the Korean Peninsula during the war, which ended in an armistice in 1953.

So far a total of 197,653 Chinese martyrs of that war have been recognized, including soldiers and workers who helped with construction in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

To commemorate the dead, a wall more than 130 meters long was built in the Martyrs' Park, with names of these martyrs on it.

"This is a salute to the 197,653 heroes," said Wu Jizhang, son of the late deputy commander Wu Guozhang in the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. "Every Chinese person could gain courage and strength here."