China's first filial piety-themed museum opens

China's first filial piety museum, a key virtue in Chinese culture, opened on Saturday in Qionglai City of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The museum was funded by more than 500 local residents and enterprises with an investment of more than eight million yuan (about 1.29 million U.S. dollars). It shows the culture of filial piety, stories of dutiful sons and daughters in ancient and modern China via objects, photos and videos.

Some heroes and heroines of the stories visited the museum's opening Saturday. To realize their mother's dream of seeing outside world, Wang Kai and Wang Rui from northeast China made a cart by themselves, travelled over 18,000 km with their mother and left their footprints in 17 provinces.

"In order to make more people be good to their parents, we have called on five families to embark on a new journey last April. We visited Shanghai, Beijing and Hainan Island. The oldest traveller is a 102-year-old grandma," Wang Rui said.

A week ago before the museum opened, a couple was found dead in their apartment in Jiaxing City of east China's Zhejiang Province by their migrant son who works in Shanghai Municipality, which ignited online debate in the country, Qianjiang Evening News said.

The father was thought to have died after an accident ten days ago, while the mother, who had Alzheimer's Disease, was thought to have died of dehydration and hunger one or two days ago before being found, the report said based on preliminary investigation.

Official statistics showed that China has at least 62 million empty-nest elders, one third of the total aging population.

"I hope the museum can encourage public to respect and take good care of elders. Time cannot wait us to love our parents," Wang Rui said.