Hi-Tech Tombstone: QR Codes on Graves Available in China

Sometimes, everything you want to say about your deceased loved one just won't fit on a tombstone.

That's why several companies in the US began adding QR codes to headstones in 2011, allowing people to use their smartphones to access to a memorial page with photos, biography and messages from family members. Reports are out just in time for Qingming Jie (Tomb Sweeping Festival) that this service is now being made available in Shenyang and could be coming soon to Beijing.

More than 10 people have signed up for QR codes at Shenyang's Shengjing cemetery, according to a Shanghai Daily article. The codes – and the administration of the memorial website – have been reported to cost more than USD 600, but its still unclear as to how much it will set people back in China.

This news comes only months after about 2,000 employees of a luxury golf and spa resort in Shenzhen formed the largest "human" QR code using different colored umbrellas, which linked to a page on the spa's website promoting eco-tourism.

This latest QR code craze isn't the only link between tech and the immortality in China – Apple products and the afterlife have also made headlines. Read more here and here.

Photo: Gabriel Jorby on Flickr