BEIJING, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Those who died three decades ago in China may have missed out on the country's miraculous "Great Leap Forward" from a business backwater to the booming second largest economy in the world, but "filial" offspring today have ensured their deceased family members have no regrets.

　　Millions of Chinese went to the graveyards of loved ones this Wednesday to observe Tomb-sweeping Day, a traditional Chinese holiday. While many still burned traditional offerings -- paper money, cakes, and fruit, others decided that the dead should have a taste of the enormous material gains, and perhaps the decaying morals, of today's Chinese society.

　　Replicas of various items including trendy iPhones, flashy Ferraris and Lamborghinis, luxury handbags, villas, and even bikini-clad mistress dolls, were all on sale at stalls near cemeteries and on online stores on Taobao.com.

　　A saleswoman at a stall in southwestern Chongqing said they sold made-to-order mistress dolls for 20 yuan (3.2 U.S. dollars) and 15 yuan for a smaller version.

　　"Villas, cars, 'er nai'-- mistresses, we make whatever modern day items you can think of," she was quoted by the Chongqing Evening News as saying.

　　Another vendor nearby sold elaborate paper villas. A replica of a furnished four-story villa complete with electronic home appliances and even a guard at the front door sells for 200 yuan. And there are paper replicas of BMW or Mercedes sedans.

　　"A BMW for 20 yuan -- it doesn't come cheaper than that!" the vendor cried. "Buy one for the old man so he can have a luxurious experience in the afterlife."

　　Fancy cars, villas, guards and, more controversially, mistresses, are all the latest status symbols associated with the country's rich and powerful. However these items aren't as popular because most people are scornful of this excessive extravagance, the vendors admitted.

　　Paper iPhones and iPads, though, are a bit more popular.

　　"Chinese society has gone through a great many changes over the past few decades," said one customer, who declined to be named. "People up there should also be offered the joy brought by these latest technologies."

　　A paper iPhone offering comes complete with the full set of accessories an actual iPhone would -- the phone, headset, cables, and a cover. Prices vary from 20 yuan to staggering 438 yuan on Taobao's online stores.

　　China's Internet users are able to see the funny side of these iPhone offerings.

　　"How will my old man know how to use this thing?" one customer asked.

　　"Well, Steve Jobs is there," the vendor replied. "He should be able to teach the oldies how to use an iPhone. But don't forget to burn the charger too, or the old man will have a hard time trying to use it!"

　　The new paper offerings may be innovative, but online surveys show that 80 percent of people have yet to take to them, dismissing them as "too trendy" or "too costly."

　　"Qingming is the Chinese equivalent of Thanksgiving," said Li Hanqiu, an official with Chinese Society for the Study of Folk Literature and Art. "There is no point being too extravagant with the offerings. Your attitude is far more important."

　　Other new Tomb-sweeping initiatives which have fallen foul of netizens and the media are the new services offered by funeral agents, who can send surrogates to cry at gravesides. A Tianjin funeral agent posted online videos, and a price list charging 300 yuan for a ten-minute session of wailing at the grave of your choice.

　　A band that plays solemn music to go with the mourning? Another 1,000 yuan.

　　In ancient China, the tradition says that the louder you cry at the funeral, the more filial you are, and more easily the deceased may rest in peace.

　　While this practice has been promoted, with limited reach, in some parts of the country, it's yet to gain any traction with most people.

　　"It is cheating, and very immoral," said Fu Wanfu, a popular media commentator. "It is not a homage if you deceive the dead."

　　In many Chinese cities, most people cremate their relatives and bury the ashes in a pot with tombstones erected in mass cemeteries that dot the outskirts of a city. Location is very important to families who believe in Feng Shui. A less than ideal plot, they believe, can bring bad luck to both the dead and the living.

　　Death, then, can sometimes be very expensive as cemeteries and funeral agents charge unreasonably high prices for graves in good locations.

　　In Beijing, a plot in an upscale cemetery charges 350,000 yuan for every square meter of land. In Nanjing, the per-square-meter price of a cemetery inside a Buddhist temple is around 20 times higher than the average local residential house price.

　　According to statistics from the Beijing civil affairs bureau, around 80 percent of the Chinese capital's graveyards charge more than 10,000 yuan per square meter of the plot.

　　Just as housing prices are skyrocketing, the high graveyard charges are pricing out low-income Beijing families, and many have considered burying ashes in neighboring Hebei Province.

　　"Settling down in Beijing is expensive, regardless whether you are alive or dead," said one microblogger on the popular Sina Weibo portal, contributing to the online buzz about "living in Beijing, but dying in Hebei."

　　"Just as surging food prices force us to diet, a spike in the graveyard prices remind us that we should live on and live well," another microblogger added, sarcastically.