TIANJIN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- In the silence of the exhibition hall at Tianjin Medical University in north China's Tianjin Municipality, 67-year-old Xing Yunjing carefully presses a sticker to the memorial wall, adding another name to the already visible -- each representing someone who has donated their body for medical study.

Xing added the names of 229 donors to the memorial wall ahead of Tomb-Sweeping Day, which fell on Friday this year, bringing the total number of posted names to 1,200.

Over the past eight years, retired volunteer Xing has guided nearly 400 families in fulfilling the wishes of their dying loved ones, ranging from military veterans to young people whose lives were cut short by illness, all of whom chose to donate their bodies or organs.

"The youngest donor was only one year old, and the oldest was 106. No matter what age the donors were, they chose to leave their love to the world," Xing said.

Xing's parents and uncle were donors and, inspired by the choice they had made, he became a volunteer after his retirement in 2017 to help more selfless donors donate their bodies or corneas to science.

The traditional belief in Chinese society is that a burial brings peace to the deceased, so the donation of bodies or human organs was once challenging to accept. However, this attitude has been changing gradually over recent years, with marked increases in the number of people choosing to register as body or organ donors.

Data from the China Organ Donation Administrative Center shows that over 7 million people in China have voluntarily registered as body or organ donors so far.

Jiang Kui, a physician of the department of gastroenterology at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, found the names of her elementary school teacher, Zhang Hongjun, and his wife on the memorial wall.

"They devoted their lives, and eventually their bodies, to education. I was deeply moved," Jiang said, adding that the bodies of the elderly couple will bring hope to many patients and help more students become qualified medical practitioners.

Han Yuxi, a sophomore at the university, said that she had no knowledge of the donors when she dealt with bodies in her anatomy class.

"Now, touching their names, I realize that their donations have made the river of medical knowledge vaster," she said.