HANGZHOU – More than 500 members of one Chinese family have posed for a family photo.
The pictures were taken last week during the Lunar New Year period at a Ren family reunion at Shishe village in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang.
Photographer Zhang Liangzong took the pictures with a drone in front of basalt formations near Shishe.
The Ren family, which originates from the village, can be traced back 851 years, but their family tree had not been updated for more than eight decades, according to the BBC.
Village elders recently began updating the family tree records and marked the family tree’s completion by holding a massive reunion, and managed to gather more than 500 people who came from Beijing, Shanghai, Xinjiang and Taiwan.
It took the Rens around 30 minutes to position themselves correctly for the photo in front of unique basalt formations near the village.
Village chief Ren Tuanjie told state news agency Xinhua: “One reason was to understand where our descendants have spread to, where they have ended up and where they live, to account to our ancestors.”
“And another reason was also to let descendants all over the country know their roots, so that wherever they go they will not forget where they come from,” said Mr Ren, who belongs to the 26th generation of Rens and whose name happens to mean “reunion” in Chinese.
