Seventy years after they lost their lives defending their motherland in a foreign land, more than 600 soldiers from the Chinese Expeditionary Force who fought Japanese troops in Myanmar during World War II have finally returned home.

A burial ceremony was held on Thursday morning at Elegy of the Nation Cemetery in Tengchong, Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar.

Thousands of people, including veterans, descendants of the expeditionary force soldiers and local residents, attended the ceremony, during which the soldiers' remains were buried.