Chinese Cemetery Altar - Oak Bay, BC
Posted by: 
The A-Team
N 48° 24.402 W 123° 19.386
10U E 476088 N 5361555
Located in the Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point at the end of Crescent Road in Oak Bay, BC.
Waymark Code: WMJ3WR
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 09/19/2013
Views: 6
Starting in 1873, the local Chinese residents had been burying their dead in Ross Bay Cemetery to the west, but by the late 1800s some of the graves were being washed away by storms, so they started looking for another location. The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association eventually bought the site at Harling Point (then known as Foul Point, and later as Chinese Point) in April 1903. Burials continued here until 1950 and the cemetery was formally closed in 1961. The cemetery was designated a
National Historic Site in 1995.
The altar was built when the cemetery opened in 1903. It's flanked by two incinerator towers in which fake money and other ceremonial offerings are burned. The century-old altar and incinerators are still actively being used to this day.